Harbinger of Repentance
by SaucyHandles
Summary: When a team is sent on a Search & Rescue mission into a comatose Naruto's mind, many truths are set to be revealed. From these truths, new fears are born, and from these fears, perhaps a new power will arise. Awaken Naruto, the wielder of fears! Naruto-verse! No bashing! -Not yaoi- Poll up!
1. Search and Rescue!

**AN: This is simply something I wanted to try. Now I'm not going to do too much research into Silent Hill, mostly because I'm not expecting much of a response to this story, so don't hold it against me if I get something wrong in regards to the Silent Hill series. I've played through the first four games and I'm hoping that enough to create this story and turn it into what I want it to be. Now the intro to this is going to use the whole mob cliche, but I worked really hard to make it so its done in a well reasoned manner, as such a lot of this chapter touches on brief history. In other words, while I'm using the mob mentality cliche, it wont be done in a way that contains any bashing. Its strictly being used to set the mood to better interact with the Silent Hill aspects I wish to use.**

 **Also, I'm hoping my writing skill has improved enough to do this idea some justice, but I'd still appreciate writing tips from anyone willing to give them.**

 **Note: can someone help me with translations? If you happen to be bilingual please leave me a PM.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Silent Hill**

* * *

 **Harbinger of Repentance**

 **Chapter one**

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Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but to hate himself as he gazed at the pair of tan folders that lay on his desk. One was nearly bursting with papers, and his heart ached seeing it, but the other had only a few, and it was this one that made him truly detest himself. These folders were mission reports and hospital records, and they were both related by a single person. The large one contained various mission reports that had been filled out over the last eight years, while the thin one was of the hospital records for but a sole patient,

Uzumaki Naruto; the young boy he'd always seen as a grandson, like his very own flesh and blood, was yet again in the hospital.

Gazing over the newest entry to Naruto's medical record, Hiruzen's frustrations grew as he unconsciously let loose a bit of his killing intent. With each passing moment he found it more and more difficult to rain in the whirling emotions that had managed to flood his system as his eyes slowly read across the words on the paper. However, on the thin sheet of paper he held in his hands, one sentence drastically stood out to him.

 _'Patient Status: Comatose.'_

It must have been about the fiftieth time he had read the document regarding his surrogate grandchild's hospitalization, and yet his urge to massacre a good lot of the civilians in his village still peaked every time he read the word, "Comatose". He'd tried so damn hard to keep the small boy safe, and protected from the dangers that sought him, both from within and without. A mirthless chuckle escaped from his lips as he lightly banged a single hand against his desk. Tears lightly streamed down his face as the years finally caught up to him. He always managed to fail when things mattered, didn't he? He should have NEVER revealed the boys status when he was just a baby, but he had at the time thought so well of the village he loved and had wanted to let the people know of Minato's final wish for the boy.

He thought for sure that once the people heard the inspirational words of the late beloved leader that they would all be proud of the boy. But that wasn't the case. Everyone had at first remained silent, which he believed was simply due to the nights speech being a lot for them to take in, especially immediately after such a tragic event had just struck the village, but it only took one confused and scared man's vocal outcry to start the panic in the people around him.

"S-so... that thing's th-the fox?!"

He didn't think the man even realized what he'd done, but almost immediately whispers broke out across the gathered civilians like a wild fire. Even though he had corrected the man almost immediately the seeds of doubt had already been planted, and as many conspiracy theories went, no amount of proof to the contradicting would put out the flames of doubt and fear. Soon more people began shouting out fear filled questions, all of which pointed at the idea that the young baby he had held in his arms was a monster. It was at that point when he had witnessed just how fast human nature could take hold of a crowd's fear that he had immediately silenced them with a booming shout.

At the time he didn't know if he or the wounded and tired shinobi could take the prospect of a riot breaking out, so he chose to nip it in the bid by forbidden anyone speak about it anymore. He shouted from the roof of the Hokage tower how they had been mistaken and the boy was _not_ a demon, and that he was truly disappointed in his people for believing such a thing, no matter how short a time period they did such. To their credit the majority of people looked ashamed. He knew they cared about the village and were simply terrified from what they had experienced. After all, feeling the killing intent of the Nine-Tails was horrifying for veteran shinobi, let alone untrained civilians who had no experience with killing intent nor any real knowledge of what was happening.

Once he had silenced the crowd and attempted to remedy the situation he began a new speech; this one instating the new law that would be known by all, but neglected by so many. The law that forbade all those who knew from speaking a single word about it to those who didn't, under penalty of possible imprisonment. Maybe that was his second mistake. Had he known how the situation would only degrade over time, he would have done something more to prevent it. He had at the time thought about setting the penalty to be a death sentence, but that was extremely severe and could cause political drawbacks. The last thing he needed at the moment was the people starting to view him as a tyrannical leader; something that alone would only reinforce the rampant conspiracy theories that were popping up at the time.

No, the law probably would still have been broken again and again. It wasn't like he could constantly monitor every single civilian in the village at all times of the day. Besides, the village had at the time much larger concerns to deal with, such as reconstruction and gathering a in-depth death toll. Enforcing a law that had yet to even be written on paper simply wasn't feasible. It turned out to be a massive mistake that he'd wished he wouldn't have brushed off. So much pain could have been avoided had he simply proven to the people that the new law was anything but a joke; a few people imprisoned would have been all it took to let them know it was a serious offense, but he hadn't done such a thing, and the moment that a the few people who hadn't listened to him at the speech, and continued to believe their own theories and spread fear inducing stories around got away with doing such, more and more people began ignoring the law.

It wasn't long until it was a pandemic that simply couldn't be dealt with. At that point imprisoning a few people wouldn't change anything. He had stated that the penalty of breaking the law would be imprisonment, and then he had failed horribly to enforce said law. He would have to throw a vast majority of the population into prison to prove himself serious, and probably have to throw the rest into community service building more prisons to fit them all. Overall, the entire situation was a mess. A mess that he'd created, and that would haunt him for the next eight years.

As the young baby grew up over time, the hate grew with him. The boy was the village pariah, and nothing could be done about it anymore. Even with all the power he held as Hokage he couldn't _force_ people to like the boy, and as such he grew up lacking the encouragement and love that a young child needed. Over time he received report after report about the injustices that were being held against the boy, ranging from raised food prices to outright harassment from the Anbu guard he had posted to keep the boy safe. He had done his best to punish the the stores that had discriminated against the boy by hitting them with heavy fines, which he then used to fund Naruto's allowance, and yet it still wasn't enough.

He couldn't realistically do much more than fine the stores due to the sheer number that discriminated against him. If he went around closing them down for refusing to be fair to a single customer it could actually start effecting Konoha's economy, once again reflecting poorly of his leadership skills. Internal economic struggles simply weren't an option when the other great nations were already reviewing Konoha's power and security with a fine-tooth comb. And yet again his lack to sufficiently punish those transgressions soon led to even further rebellion in regards to how they treated the law, and Naruto himself.

It was around his seventh year being alive that things had first truly proven to be out of hand, as that was the first time that an attempt had been made on the child's life. A man that had lost his entire family in the attack, and consequently became a hardcore alcoholic, had seemingly become fed up with Naruto's existence seeing as he had broken into the boy's apartment while he'd been sleeping, with the intent to kill him. His plan had been effectively stopped once the single Anbu guard at the time noticed the commotion through the boys window. But even once the guard acted and the man was restrained Naruto had still been hurt.

Not physically, but mentally and emotionally.

The years of neglect had already damaged the boy's sense of security and confidence, but the attack had made the boy become increasingly isolated. From the daily reports he received from the various Anbu guard, the boy rarely ever left his apartment anymore. The few times that he did was to head over to the small Ichiraku ramen stand that the two of them used to frequent whenever he would visit the boy, to get some house-made, prepackaged ramen cups that the stand sold. It was a rare occurrence for the boy to leave his apartment for much else. That's not to say he never did, as he was reported to occasionally walk around town or visit the park nearby the academy building periodically. No matter how much he may have feared others he was still a little boy, and keeping himself locked up for extended periods of would always make him want to be outside.

The guards at his behest always remembered to include a brief note in regards to the boy's emotional state, based on their observation of him that day. Over the span of a few months it seemed that the boy was slowly getting better, but still had a long road to recovery ahead of him. It was during this time that Hiruzen made an effort to have a talk with the boy and try and set the boy straight. He couldn't keep himself locked away forever, and he needed to know that. The talk itself went over about as well as he'd expected, with the boy questioning everything and why his life was the way it was. He had wanted to tell him that it was all his fault, but ultimately wound up telling him a story about a hero of a far off village, that had grown up in the worst of conditions but had grown strong because of it. He weaved a fantastical story that had soon inspired Naruto's desire to become a hero himself someday.

Hiruzen sighed for the thousandth time, the paper he clutched in his hand had long since been crumpled into a tightly wound ball. Even though the boy had found a new dream, that didn't stop his life from getting worse. After news had been leaked in regards to Naruto's attack, something that he had made sure was held tightly under wraps, it seemed to spur the hatred in peoples hearts once more. The man to them wasn't a criminal, he was a martyr. It wasn't long until another attack occurred, this time it had been a group of people...

...and it had been successful.

The Anbu guard had been a new one, and had only been around Chunin-level in terms of skill. Just before the attack had taken place the guard had been lured out by the group when they staged a girl's potential rape. Both the girl and the men who seemed to have been assaulting her were in on it. The report he'd read said that the civilians had somehow acquired a potent poison that after the men had ran the crying girl injected into the Anbu guard. Thankfully it wasn't anything deadly, but that particular guard had stayed in a coma for a solid month.

The attack they carried out while Naruto had been without guard was horrendous. They had spent the entire hour it took for someone to find the guard, brutally torturing the boy with various bladed weapons and blunt objects. Once the he and his Anbu had made it it was too late. The boy was already on his last legs, cuts and gashes lined the boys nude form, while disgusting black bruises covered whatever wasn't being covered by the blood and cuts. It took only a moment for him to lose his temper and order the civilians to be executed on the spot, with the exception of a single man. The very man that had first spoken out all those years ago at the speech. He was sent to the Torture and Interrogation Force, in the Konoha Intelligence Division.

That whole incident had happened only a week ago...

So here he was now, trying to come to terms with what had happened. When Naruto had first been placed into the hospital, he wasn't sure if he was even going to make it through the night, and neither were the doctors who had operated on him. That was a small relief, that even though there were those that despised the boy, the medics at the hospital took their jobs seriously, along with the oath to help those in need. Not a single one of the doctors that he had turned the boy over to had shown any hostility towards him; something that had brought an internal smile to his face. Maybe it was because they were simply more intelligent then those that held prejudices against young Naruto, and as such held little difficulty in seeing the distinction between him and the monster the stories made him out to be.

Regardless of what the case might be he was thankful. Had he needed to argue with them to get them to help the boy then he might not have made it through the night, if what they had reported was to be believed, regardless of his miraculous healing ability, something that had been revealed to them all that very night. It seemed that the boy's injuries had begun healing immediately after the worst of the worst injuries had been taken care of by the medics. Both the medics and himself had yet to figure out if said healing was a byproduct of being the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails, or if it had to do with his genetics that he inherited from his parents. Hiruzen didn't reveal whom the boy was the product of to those particular medics however; that was something he'd have a personally selected medic review, under strict orders of secrecy.

Even with the boy's strange healing factor, it still took over four hours for him to be declared as being in a stable enough condition to be left to recover the rest of the way on his own. From there on the boy had remained asleep in the hospital bed, with an Anbu guard occupying the room at all times. Once the third day rolled around and the boy had yet to awaken he was declared as being in a coma. The report that he had held had been yet another update on the boys condition; just one of many he'd received over the last two months. And it was the last time Hiruzen ever wanted to read it. He had already determined himself to do something about it. With that thought stuck on his mind he gestured to one of the hidden Anbu inside the room.

Appearing inside the room kneeled in front of his desk was a man wearing a weasel-themed porcelain mask, black clothing that was covered by a grey flak jacket, protective metal arm guards with gloves and a pair of special shinobi sandals.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" came a monotone voice from behind the mask, the speaker not even deeming to look up at him. Hiruzen sighed at the man's behavior; not that he was being inappropriate for the job, but because it pained him to see a teenager like the one in front of himself acting as he was. This one in particular. The village had asked so much of him as of lately. Regardless he still had an order to give.

"Weasel, I need you to head over to the Intelligence Division and inform Inoichi that I request his presence here immediately." Hiruzen spoke firmly, receiving a nod in return from the Anbu member before they disappeared from the spot they'd occupied a moment earlier. Hiruzen let loose a drawn out sigh. It was going to take planning from both him and Inoichi but he was going to bring Naruto out from his coma if it was the last thing he was going to do. Then he'd tell the boy everything. Now all that was left to do was to wait for Inoichi.

* * *

He was right, it had indeed taken quite a bit of planning; about a full month's worth, but they had finally managed to come up with a plan. It turned out Inoichi knew of a way to draw a person out of a coma, or rather, a particular Jutsu. It was however considered forbidden to use, seeing as it posed a lot of potential risk, both to the user and the target. The Jutsu granted the ability to explore a person's mind in a form of semi-physical representation of it. In a sense it allowed the user to enter the targets mind and travel around it as if it were a physical place. The danger however came in the form of the fact that any damage sustained inside the targets mind would have negative consequences on the users mind. If the user died while inside the targets mind their brain would shut down and they would die. It had been forbidden due to the inability to determine what dangers a target's mind might pose.

The use on a enemy opponent was an obvious no-go seeing as the enemy could possibly take control of the environment and kill the user. Another danger of using the technique was that it was impossible to leave the technique until the target was found inside the representation and they allowed the user to leave. The only other way to leave would be to kill the target inside the representation, thus ending the connection that was made upon the activation of the technique. If a target didn't want the user to leave they couldn't, and as such had to be executed. The saving grace of the technique was the fact that it allowed others to accompany them into the target's mind, to serve as a sort of backup.

It was this very Jutsu that they had planned on using to draw the boy out of his coma. The danger the mission posed was also why two different Anbu would be appointed to accompany him into the child's mind. Hiruzen had also sought council from the current Anbu commander, Shikaku Nara, in regards to various possible strategies and all potential possibilities. The groups main concern had turned to what effect the presence of the Kyuubi would have on the mission, and that was where their fears now rested. Seeing as it was impossible to preemptively tell what was going to happen, they had no way to plan for that particular outcome without first being inside the target's mind anyways.

It had taken awhile but they had finally gotten everything that was needed for the mission in order. Two Anbu had already been hand picked by Hiruzen, and Naruto had already been transferred to a location where the mission could occur. It was at this particular location deep within the Intelligence Division's main HQ that they now found themselves.

Located inside a large circular room, Naruto's unconscious body sat rested upon a stone alter. The room was entirely empty of any other objects, and was currently only occupied by a group of five individuals. These individuals were Hiruzen himself, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, the weasel-masked Anbu, along with another Anbu agent, though this one was female and wore a cat-themed mask. The group had already had everything set up and ready to go, now all that was left was for the technique to be cast. Inoichi stood directly in front of Naruto's unconscious form, with the two Anbu flanking him on both sides, standing a few feet away.

"Are you positive you agree to do this Inoichi?" Hiruzen asked, concern showing on his aged face. Receiving a resolute nod and cry of 'Hai' he turned his attention to the two Anbu agents. "What of the two of you? I will not force you to partake in this if you do not feel up to it."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the duo shouted simultaneously.

"Very well then... You may begin whenever you wish Inoichi, and be safe." with that the blond man quickly began flashing through various hand-seals before he slammed his palms onto the floor in front of him, with a shout of, "Mind Convergence Technique!". Immediately a string of seals spread out from his palms towards the two Anbu, before they created a circle around each of them. The moment the circles completed the two Anbu's bodies began to collapse, only to each be caught by clones of Shikaku that appeared immediately behind them. Once the pair had been rested gently onto the floor and the clones had dispersed, Inoichi stood up before reaching his hand out and firmly grasping the blond boy's forehead. As he did so his eyes closed and the world faded into darkness for him.

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Inoichi snapped his eyes open, revealing to him a deep grey sky. It appeared he was laying on the ground. Shaking his head he slowly stood up from the ground and took a look around himself. It seemed that the technique had been a success, as he now stood in what appeared to be a nondescript street. The place however was being bathed in an incredibly thick fog, preventing himself from seeing more than fifteen feet in any direction. From what he could see though, the place seemed to be entirely devoid of life, as not a single building that lined the road within sight had any lights on, and the not a single person could be heard roaming the streets within hearing range.

He slowly made his way over to a nearby building, one that appeared to be a residence of some sort. The windows were coated in what seemed to be a massive layer of dust, as he had trouble seeing through them, so he made his way up a few steps that sat outside and attempted to open the door. It was locked and the handle wouldn't budge in the slightest. Well, that was a bust. He had been hoping to find some information within the residence to help him in the investigation, or perhaps help him get an idea as to where he was. Seeing as he hadn't woken up alongside the two Anbu, it meant that the first order of business was to regroup. With all the fog the task could prove to be difficult. There was no telling how large the representation might be.

With a short sigh, Inoichi made his way down the stairs and back into the street. He'd just have to start looking then. Walking towards the opposite end of the street he made to push chakra into his legs and leap up to the roof, so he could travel a little faster while having a slightly better view, but the moment he made to leap he could tell something was wrong as what was suppose to get him ten feet into the air instead got him roughly two; the equivalent of a civilians regular jumping ability. Great, so no chakra to work with, that meant the entire operation would have to be carried out manually.

With yet another sigh, Inoichi made his was along the street, this was going to take some time.

* * *

Itachi couldn't help but to smirk from behind his weasel mask while he gazed around himself. The detail of his surroundings were incredibly vivid. The technique used really was something special. It was rare for any non-Yamanaka to get the chance to see what the inside of a person's mind was like, and to say it was neat would be an understatement. Shaking himself of his current musings Itachi turned away from the large statue of a woman that he'd been examining, and took a look at the rest of the area. It seemed he was inside some kind of recreational park, or perhaps a town square of some sorts. He could only see concrete below him which made up the majority of the ground, short shrub-like hedges that made up a wall of sorts surrounding him, and a few wooden benches.

The fog surrounding the area was really making it difficult to see, so pushing chakra into his eyes Itachi made to activate his Sharingan, only for there to be no noticeable difference in the clarity or field of his vision. Turning to look at the metal placard that adorned the from of the statue, he used the reflective surface to looks at his eyes through the mask he wore, and what he saw concerned him. It seemed he couldn't activate his Sharingan. He had no idea if this was normal or not, but he figured it most likely was. Regardless, he determined that the best course of action would be to regroup with the others as fast as possible. With that Itachi turned and began walking towards an opening in and archway he could see through the fog.

Their squad captain, Inoichi, would probably have the answers he sought.

* * *

The sharp sounds of metal scraping against stone sounded out across a fog filled area, as a sword slashed out against the wall of a brick building, created an 'x' mark on the surface. The owner of the sword was none other than the cat-masked Anbu that had been chosen to accompany the others on this mission. She had jumped at the chance when she'd been asked by Lord Hokage, even though it wasn't a direct command. If it was a mission that Lord Hokage deemed her appropriate for than it was a missions shed accomplish without fail. She lived to serve the Hokage, and she strived to be the best.

As she came across yet another building she lashed out with lightning speed, using her sword to leave another large 'x' mark upon it. She had reasoned upon 'waking up' that the best course of action was to locate and regroup with the other members of the squad that had been created for this mission. However, she had quickly found out that she was unable to utilize her chakra anymore when she had attempted to ascend to a building's roof via wall climbing. As disconcerting as the inability to use chakra was, she had been trained how to fight effectively without it, and felt comfortable enough in her abilities to not let it get to her.

She had calmly begun making her way around the area, looking for signs of her temporary squad as she left signs of her own. The fog would likely prevent them from seeing each other so she reasoned it best to leave markings as evidence of her location. It could take awhile to locate the other, but she resigned herself to the task.

What she couldn't see however was that just outside of her visibility through the fog, the marks she left upon the buildings quickly vanished, leaving behind unscathed stone and wood. Had she been able to however, she very well might have been a little more on edge then she currently was.

And rightfully so.

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 **Alright! That's the first chapter to my Naruto/Silent Hill crossover! I hope you enjoyed it, because it was really fun to write for! Also, I hope I did a good job turning the whole angry mob cliche into something effectually different.**

 **Note: the exploration of Naruto's 'mind' wont be what the entirety of what this crossover is, just a small part of it. The rest of the story will take place and follow canon Naruto, but with changes I'll be making to incorporate the crossover.**

 **Anyways, please leave a review and let me know what you thought of this first chapter! It will really help me out! If there was anything at all that you _didn't_ like, please let me know! I openly accept criticism.**

 **-SaucyHandles**


	2. Lost!

**Authors Note: Well, here's the second chapter of Harbinger of Repentance! And I gotta say it was fun to write! But I do want to get something out there before the story. This WILL be a Naruto-centric story, following the Naruto story line but with changes being made so it's a Silent Hill crossover. This little Arc I have going about Itachi, Inoichi, and Yugao won't be overly long, and is just setting up the atmosphere for the rest of the story. Once it's over well be heading back into the Naruto world where I'll start making the changes.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Silent Hill.**

 **Now onward with the chapter!**

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 **Harbinger of Repentance**

 **Chapter Two**

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Itachi let out a sigh as he stood still in the middle of the road. The fog around him was really starting get on his nerves. He had no idea where the others could be, nor how large the area was and the inability to see more than a short distance definitely wasn't helping. Not to mention the road he'd been following didn't _go_ anywhere. Literally, the road he'd been walking down for the last ten minutes simple ceased to exist. Directly in front of him where the road was supposed to be was nothing more than a gigantic gorge in the ground; large jagged rocks lining the way down into what appeared to be a bottomless pit. Of course it could just be the fog making it look like that, but it really didn't matter in the end seeing as he couldn't see if the road even continued across the gorge, and with the inability to use his chakra he wouldn't be able to jump the gap regardless.

He breathed deeply, pushing the frustrations he felt off to the side for now. It looked like he was going to have to find a different direction to head. This mission was already becoming more difficult that it should be. He only really had two objectives at the moment; one being to find the target, Uzumaki Naruto, and the other to regroup with the rest of the squad. If he could use chakra he would've long since fired a Katon Jutsu into the air to hopefully signal the others, but since he couldn't finding them was going to be much more of a pain. He'd have to come up with a plan to find the others.

He'd already thought about simply setting fire to one of the nearby buildings to act as a Katon for him, but he decided against it since he had no idea what effects that might have on the target's mind, seeing as he'd been informed that this was all a representation of their mind. For all he knew burning the place might turn the target into a vegetable and that _definitely_ wouldn't make Hokage-sama happy. No, he'd likely be spending the rest of his days in a worse position then even Kotetsu and Izumo. Those two were rarely seen anywhere else other than on gate duty as of recently. From what he heard, Kotetsu had been caught shirking his duties when he'd been supposed to hand in a mission report, and like the loyal friend he was Izumo had been with him.

Itachi internally laughed; Izumo hadn't even done anything wrong but Hokage-sama had decided to punish him anyways. He figured it must have been the old man's form of a joke. Regardless, the duo had been stuck on gate duty for the last month, and from the sounds of things they still had another month to go. Itachi figured if that was their punishment for missing a mission report, then he could only imagine what the Hokage would do to him if he fried the targets brain. After all, those that had been members of the Anbu Black Ops at any point in the last eight years all knew that the Hokage cared deeply about the boy.

Itachi shook his head when he realized that he'd started to let his mind wander; he needed to focus on the mission at hand. As things were going now, he'd soon probably have to give up on finding the others, and switch to the goal of locating Naruto, or at least whatever the representation of Naruto turned out to be. The briefing him and Neko-San had received just prior to the mission had made it clear that while the few records there were showed that most commonly a target remained looking the same even in their mind, there had been one or two cases where the target had manifested as a representation of how they viewed themselves.

If the target had deeply seeded self confidence issues they could appear as any number of things, ranging from becoming extremely obese versions of themselves to becoming scared children. The second one was something that had been documented on a case involving a man that had been feeling extremely pressured by the adult world, and had been overworking himself to make money. Itachi found the prospect both rather sad and yet still interesting. It was a strange thought to think that the area surrounding himself hosted so many secrets and thoughts that a person held. It made him wonder just what everything around him represented. He could picture that the emptiness of the city was a representation of loneliness, but other than that the rest simply eluded him.

Making his way over to the side of the street, Itachi stopped to look at an alleyway that was situated just between two different shops. He could either head down it and see where it went or he could turn back down the street in the direction he came, maybe trying some of the doors along the way. The choice wasn't too tough for him to make, seeing as on his way down this direction he'd already taken the time to try some doors, but he'd given up after the fifth one had been locked. It was strange to say the least, but ultimately he couldn't, with his limited knowledge on the subject, help but to liken everything around him to being akin to a dream; it simply didnt need to make sense.

Mind made up Itachi slowly made his way into the alley. The two buildings that flanked it seemed to be at least three stories tall, as we're many others he'd passed by, and had the general appearance of those that resided in Konaha. Or at least that's what he had concluded due to the type of shingles he could see on different portions of the first levels of some of the buildings. Almost everything past the second story was hidden by the dense fog. As he descended deeper down the narrow path the little light that had been available back on the street slowly became less and less, likely being blocked out by the buildings as they cast the alley in a deep shadow.

Itachi didn't necessarily mind the dark, but it did limit how fast he felt comfortable moving as he made his way down the short path. It didn't take long for the alley to break into a short open area near the back of one of the buildings. It was only about fifteen feet in from the road, but the feel of the area felt almost like another world entirely. The area itself broke into a roughly twenty by twenty square area, but the majority was being blocked off by a rusty chain-link fence that sectioned off a good portion behind one building; looking like a storage area, seeing as there were mishmash'd items scattered around just behind it. Through the fence to his left he could make out a door that led into the building the took up the left of the alley.

Even though the area was so close to the road he'd just been on, the lowered light level and cramped feel make it feel a lot more oppressive, almost installing a sense of claustrophobia. Though, the area did gave him some light reprieve from the overly thick fog that had been prevalent back on the road. He could now see around himself fairly well, for what little advantage it gave him. He still couldn't see further than twenty feet, but now because of walls and darkness. Itachi breathed in deeply as he thought about what to do. Ahead of him, yet to the left side of the area, another alleyway continued on, but he could clearly see that it'd only get darker the further around the corner he went. He had been hoping that the alley would break off out onto another road, so he would hopefully be able to continue the mission, but it wasn't looking to be that way.

He couldn't help but to sigh, he just had to lack the ability to harness his chakra. He'd been trying periodically since he'd left the park earlier, but every time he attempted to mold his chakra it was like he had absolutely zero control over it. He could still feel it inside his body when he concentrated, but could never get it to change the way it flowed, regardless of what seals he used. If he could manage to use even a small amount to fortify his muscles while he leapt, he could just hop his was to the top of a building; after all, they were plenty tall, and would likely get him above the fog that clung to the ground across the entire area so he could look for the others.

He couldn't think of any useful and non-destructive ways to signal or locate them with the tools he had at the moment. He had thought about attempting to shout for the others, but ultimately didn't feel that things weren't yet that desperate.

Besides, years of training was hard to ignore. It was drilled into all shinobi to maintain silence while in unknown or hostile territory, and while he doubted that he was in anything that could be considered as being hostile territory, both him and Neko had been warned to stay cautious while they were in here. The brief explanation had been that, literally anything could happen, and at any moment. The place that they now resided in didn't hold any of the laws that the real world did. As such, he'd decided shouting out across the silent village could possible yield unfavorable results, and had resolved to gather more intel on the environment before he'd commit to breaking the silence.

Itachi moved toward the second alley a bit more, as to take a peek and determine whether or not it would be a wise choice to head into it.

Through the darkness, he could just make out that it lead another five or ten feet in before breaking into a slight, yet sudden, curve. Not a full ninety degree turn, just a slight curve, maybe half that. He was thoroughly confused now however; not because of the way the alley curved, but because when he took the time to examine the walls of this particular path, they were both solid brick all the way into the darkness, and it was that fact that confused him. It severely contradicted the style of the buildings the walls attached to, and appeared as if someone had cut a portion of the building that owned the fenced area in two and pushed it apart specifically to make room for this alley, before taking the then open sides of the building and patching the walls with bricks.

It looked entirely unnatural, but overall it didn't particularly matter, so he soon began walking down the alley that was really more of a walkway, due to its length. When he made it to the curve he couldn't figure out what purpose it might have served, if any. At the end of the curved portion it sort of cut off and headed back in the direction the main path went, created a rather useless zig-zag in the path. By now though Itachi was already having to squint to see, not enough so to make going this way too much of a bother to deal with, but still enough that he didn't think he'd be able to run without hitting something, so he continued on at a slow walking pace. This had to go somewhere right?

It was less than two minutes before Itachi finally came to the end of the alley, or path, and to say he was disappointed would be an understatement. At the end wasn't an opening to another street like he'd been hoping, but instead an old looking metal door with a window in it, though, the window had strange and broken metal blinds blocking his ability to see through them. Overall it seemed like a waste of time, but he still made his way up to the door. However as he put his hand upon the door handle to check if it was open, a loud whirring sound rang off in the distance. It sounded like... a siren?

Were one of the others trying to signal him?

From his location he couldn't make out where it might be coming from, but it did bring his attention upwards, where he could now see that the fog that had been blocking any view of above him, and filtering the light, was now becoming darker with each second. He didn't know if this place held night and day cycles like in the real world, but it was the only thing he could think of that would explain why the little light in the sky was quickly slipping away and bathing the area in a nearly pitch black sheen. His eyes could now only make out the general shapes of things, like the walls around him and the door, but as the siren continued to blare loudly off in the distance, he made the decision that if it was possibly a squad member, then he needed to get higher up and onto one of the roofs so he could figure out which direction it was coming from.

With that, and the dimming light, Itachi quickly turned the handle to the door, and found that while it made a loud grinding noise, the door did indeed open up, thusly allowing him inside. As soon as he was inside he pushed the door shut behind him, something that was done purely out of a sense of proper etiquette.

Turning to look inside, Itachi couldn't make anything out, so deeming it okay to do so seeing as he was alone, he reached up and removed the porcelain mask from his face, freeing up his ability to see a bit. He quickly hooked the mask to a clip located on the side of his waist, before trying to look around again. Outside he could still hear the siren blaring loudly, but through the door the sound was severely muffled. It took him a second but Itachi quickly came across a row of switches just to the side of the door, and with only minor hesitation he quickly went through, one by one, and flipped them upwards, seeing if any happened to be a light.

It was the last one he tried, and the one furthest from the door that eventually had an effect, but it wasn't the effect he'd been hoping for. Just up above the switches, a very dim lamp that was attached to the wall slowly flickered on; it's dim whitish glow flickering periodically, but seemingly without fail as it didn't go out in the twenty second Itachi waited for it to do so. The light didn't exactly provide much help, but it did reveal to him the fact that there was stairs heading up and stairs heading down in front of him, with another door on the wall next to the stairs. That was it, just a stairwell, the door he came through, and another door to his left and ahead a few steps.

Walking briefly to the other door Itachi made to open it, but just as he'd come to expect, the handle barely budged and a light rattling sounded from within it. The handle was broken with the lock still engaged. It didn't really matter though as he still needed to make his way to the roof, so with the door out of the way, there was really only one way left for him to go. Heading up the first flight of stairs Itachi noticed that they continued up from the floor he'd now made it to, but in the other direction. So it was a stair well, and not just a single set. Well, that definitely made getting to the roof easier. Not to mention, turning to look up the next set of stairs he seen that there was yet another flickering light just at the top of them, meaning the switch controlled not just that one light below, but the lights for the entire stairwell, which was also good news.

He quickly made his was up to the next level, but when he made to turn to go up again there were no stairs, only a wall and a door. This couldn't be the roof already could it? From outside the walls that surrounded this place looked like they went on much higher than just three floors. But then again, that path was also odd, and might have just been a trick of the fog. It really didn't matter, the general direction he needed to go was up, so even if it didn't open up to the roof it wouldn't be too hard to find his way there. Reaching out he took the handle in the palm of his hand, silently hoping it didn't turn out to be broken as well, before he turned it, and without trouble the door swung open.

While he was satisfied that the door indeed hadn't been broken, he was a little disappointed when instead of opening up to the roof like he'd been hoping, it opened up to what appeared to be a hallway of some sort, with carpeting coating the floor. It was too dark to really see much beyond the doorway, and the flickering light next to him wasn't positioned in a spot where he could just leave the door open for light, but he still made his way inside. Now that he was out of the stairwell, and his eyes adjusted slightly from the light in there, he could just make out how run down the place was. The walls near him were old, and moldy, while the floor around him sounded out with creaks, slightly making him wonder if it was safe to be in here.

Across from him on the other side of the hallways, was yet another door, but this one appeared to be wood, and had a number attached to the front of it in metal, 312. Was this perhaps an inn? Turning back to the doorway that led to the stairwell, he now took notice of a sign that hung above it. Exit. So he'd came in through some sort of back door then. That meant that if he could find the main stair well, it should take him all the way to the rooftop, and then he would likely have a better idea of where the others were, or at least one of the others were. That was IF the sirens were still sounding out when he made it to the roof. If it were one of the others, he doubted they'd stop the sirens until either he or the another made it there, so hopefully that gave him time.

Itachi quickly made his way down the hall a little ways at a light jogging pace, passing by doors that each held numbers, all of which continued downwards from the previous number, before he came across what he'd been looking for, only there was a slight problem. The stairs went downwards into darkness, and next to them where he'd been hoping for an upward ascension was a door, with the words, "Rooftop Access - Personnel Only!". He didn't expect much from it, but he figured he'd better try anyways, so jogging to the door, Itachi grabbed the handle and turned... or... he would've, had it not been locked.

With a frustrated exhale, he took a step back. He didn't have time to sit here and look for a key, this wasn't a game, it was a mission. He'd already spent roughly an hour just trying to find the others, and while that wasn't long per say, they were still all on the clock. There was a finite amount of time one could spend inside another's mind before they started suffering mental damage themselves from stress being put on their minds. That's what Neko and himself had been told, and without a way to manually leave the mind-scape representation, they really did have a strict time schedule to attempt to stick to. It was either they found the target, or they'd likely die.

Uzumaki Naruto was already causing him a headache, and he hadn't even met him yet.

Itachi, was anything if not excellent at maintaining a calm and collected attitude though, so with a quick, "Hn", he turned to make his way back to the other stair well, and retrace his steps back to the road, but as he did so a loud bang echoed across the entire floor he occupied, causing him to whip out a single kunai from the equipment pouch attached to the back of his waist and threw himself against a wall in preparation for an attack. It took a moment, but he quickly came to the conclusion that there was no immediate danger. Even so he kept the kunai out and held in a reverse grip. It was as he was scanning the hall that he realized where the sound had come from.

The door that led to the other stairwell had slammed shut, blocking out the flickering light. If he was honest, it slightly unsettled him. With how empty and devoid of life the entire place was, having such a sudden act that had rang out as loud as it did was startling. He couldn't think of a reason one of the others would slam the door, so it was safe to assume it hadn't been them. But that left the question of what did. Kunai in hand he slowly crept his way over to the section of the hallway the door resided in. He was an Anbu Captain, and plenty skilled to handle almost any situation that could arise, but even so, he cursed how narrow the hallway was, it didn't exactly leave much space to maneuver in.

Itachi looked on in morbid curiosity as he looked at the door that had slammed shut. What had been a plain metal door before, now looked like it was ancient. The door was extremely coated in rust, to the point of flaking, while dark splotches also covered the rusty metal. It was too dark to make out what exactly it was through sight, but from smell? Oh Kami did it smell, it had to be blood. The scent it was giving off was absolutely horrid. It smelled a lot like rotting flesh, blood, and bile. Overall not something that was pleasant to inhale.

Itachi quickly jerked to the right when footsteps loudly echoed from down the hall, surprising him. He was already on high alert, and his eyes almost immediately focused on something that startled him. Just down the hall a small body, about the size of a child, quickly ran down the other flight of stairs, but what stood out, even in the darkness was the bright blond hair. That had to be none other than the target.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Itachi quickly forgot about the gore and decay covered door, and began running after the child's form. "Wait!" he shouted as he quickly approached the stairs, and proceeded to run down them. Even though he was in a rush, he still kept his guard up and kunai drawn. "Uzumaki Naruto!" receiving no reply he continued down the stairs, before coming to the next set, where he seen the figure run around the corner. The moment he exited the stairs and came out into a much wider hallway, likely somewhere on the first floor, he had a single moment to see when a door only a few feet away slammed shut. So the boy had to have ran in there. Room 109. Itachi quickly made to open the door, but the handle, like many, didn't budge as the door was locked from the inside.

Itachi quickly knocked on the door with his free hand. "Uzumaki Naruto, It's okay, I'm not here to hurt you. I was sent here with my squad to retrieve you." he thought he could hear crying coming from the other side of the door, but other than that, he didn't hear anyone making their way to the door, so with slight hesitation, Itachi wedged the kunai he held between the door and the frame and pried the door open, splintering the wood.

Inside the room, there was a short entryway with a closet to his left. Just past that was a torn up bed pressed against the wall, dark stains covering the entire mattress. Itachi briefly affirmed the useless fact the the inn was apparently a more modern styled one, in the fashion of what people had been referring to as 'Western' not that the location actually held any correlation to the name. On the far side of the room across from the door was a window with bamboo curtains drawn. But in front of that was a small crying child with blond hair. They had their legs pulled up against their chest and their face pressed into their lap as they kept crying. Approaching slowly Itachi lowered his kunai.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" he sounded out quietly, trying not to startle the child. He was pleasantly surprised when the crying immediately stopped, and the young child's trembling head slowly rose from their lap. A tremendous amount of fear shown on the young boy's face as he gazed up at him with wide eyes. Itachi sighed, he had almost been expecting it to be some kind of trap, but it was definitely the target that he was looking at. Itachi stood still for a second as the boy sat staring wide-eyed at him, before he spoke up once more with a calm and collected voice.

"Naruto, I'm here on the Hokage's orders to help get you out of here. Please come with me." Itachi definitely didn't expect to find the Uzumaki boy so fast, but he also definitely wasn't going to complain. They had been planning on it taking at least a day, maybe more, and that's when it'd start getting dangerous. But they had estimated based off from regular search and rescue missions. Looking up Itachi slowly reached up with both his hands in a placating manner, before he made to take a slow step forward, but the moment he did, the young boy in front of him immediately scrambled backwards and pressed himself harshly against the wall, a look of fear even greater than before adorning his face.

Itachi was confused, and had just been about to begin explaining that there was no reason to fear him when he heard it.

Right behind him a strange fleshy noise sounded out, along with a strange gurgling. A moment after the unsettling noises were heard a absolutely repugnant stench assaulting his nose. Itachi lightly cursed himself for apparently not paying attention, but his instincts took over in the next moment. Jumping forward, an action that had the young boy flinching, Itachi spun in mid air so that he was looking at the doorway when he landed. And that's when he saw it. Whatever it was.

A vaguely humanoid figure now occupied the doorway; it's form covered in, based off smell, rotting flesh. A pair of long legs stuck out from below the creature, with the entirety of the upper body being encased in a giant flap of skin. Overall, it looked like a person that was stuck inside a disgusting bag of flesh, with the flesh turning into something akin to skin-tight pants from the waist down. It was tall, standing a solid foot taller than himself, and it also appeared like it had some form of platform high-heels on underneath the layer of rotted and bloody flesh. It was also twitching horribly and making horrid gurgling sounds as it stepped a single deformed leg towards them.

Itachi at the moment only had one thought.

Just what the hell was this thing?

* * *

 **And that's where I think I'll end this chapter. I wish I could have written for more than just Itachi, but it was already getting pretty long. Anyways, _please_ leave a review! Those mean a lot to me as an author, and are a huge motivation for me to write more! It's always good to get follows and favorites, but getting to hear what another person thinks of the story means so much more! If I'm honest, and I am, I'm usually too lazy to sit down for prolonged periods of time writing, but every singe time I get a new review I always get super excited because its a massive show of support, and I then get to actually know what the reader thought about the story. Getting a follow and favorite doesn't tell me much other than you might have liked it, while an actual review can both motivate me, and more often then not get me out of my writers block. It's no joke how often I get stuck on specific things in my stories, and having someones input on what they thought, or what they would like to see can really help get past it.**

 **So with that said, feel free to let me know what you would like to see in the story and there's always the chance I'll include it if it fits.**

 **As always, please point out any errors you may have noticed in the story and I'll gladly fix them.**

 **-SaucyHandles.**


	3. Escape!

**Authors Note: I don't really have much to say about this chapter. If anything, I have a request. Please leave a review about it, even of you don't normally leave reviews. I've explained why in the authors note at the end of the chapter.**

 **Oh yeah! I've changed the summary to better reflect where I'm going to take this story. Also on a side note, so far each chapter has managed to be at least 5,000 words! That's incredible for me, especially since I've been updating each time in less than a week!**

 **EDIT: There is now a poll in regards to the pairing for this story on my Profile Page! Go Vote!**

 **Anyways, onward with the story!**

* * *

 **Harbinger of Repentance**

 **Chapter Three**

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Itachi took a moment to examine the creature that slowly ambled towards himself and the target he was assigned to locate. While it was certainly grotesque, the thing didn't seem all that threatening. It moved slow and he couldn't see any visible way the thing could possibly even attack him. It might be able to kick but what good would that do the creature? Casting a quick glance behind himself he seen that the boy was still there, pressed harshly against the wall. If anything that would be the most damaging thing the monster was doing; frightening his young charge. He didn't have a clue on whether or not a monster within the boy's mind could actually cause more mental problems than it represented, but either way he needed the thing gone so he could calm the young blond behind him and begin the rescue portion of the search and rescue mission.

By now the creature was only a few feet away from him, and Itachi was put on guard when it suddenly stopped moving towards him. It stood still for only the briefest of moments before its back arched with its fleshy head bent backwards before it made more of the horrid gurgling noises, like someone choking on their own blood. The warning bells immediately started ringing in his head as he watched the creature do so. However it was going to attack him, those motions screamed that they were involved. Without any more hesitation Itachi quickly spun the kunai he held in his hand before, with reflexes only a skilled shinobi would have, he lunged forward the remaining few feet between them both, and with a lightning fast swipe of his arm he slit the monsters throat before leaping back towards the boy.

The monster let out a muffled grunt, sounding a lot like under the flesh-like coating that surrounded its body it was gagged. Tremors wracked it's body for a second as the arching of it back undid itself and it stood upright once again. Itachi took quick note that out from the gash it now had on it's neck, a deep black sludge leaked forth, coating the monsters body. It really looked like old, coagulated blood that had long since stopped flowing. Other than the sludge leaking from its neck, his attack didn't seem do do anything more to the monster as it seized a few more times and stumbled yet another step forward.

Itachi's eyes narrowed as he leapt forward once again, only this time instead of a slashing motion he shoved the kunai deep into the monsters head. When it let out yet another muffled grunt he withdrew the kunai before he slammed it once again into the monsters skull. He repeated the process a total of five times, each getting only a muffled grunt and some light twitches before on the fifth time the monster let out a noise that vaguely sounded like a cross between someone throwing up and someone gagging. At the same time as it made the strange sound it's body wobbled before it fell towards the floor in a heap, it's legs spread in an awkward angle as it slumped within the tiny apartment room entryway.

He stood still for a moment as he watched to see of the creature he had just put down was going to get back up or not, but after ten seconds of silence, sans the light crying of the boy behind him, Itachi determined that it was no longer a threat. He mentally took note that five stabs to the head was what it would take to put one of these things down in the event that he ran into any others like it. The same mental note made him sigh. Stabbing a creature repeatedly in the face wasn't exactly elegant, nor was it what he'd been trained to do, but this thing seemed to be immune to normal wounds, that would otherwise be fatal to a regular human. Regardless of how he felt about acting in such a brutish manner, it worked and he wasn't about to complain.

Turning to face the young crying child behind himself, Itachi made to lower his kunai when he noticed that it was completely blunted on the tip, while the rest of the bladed part sat making quiet sizzling noises as it slowly corroded. He was internally thankful that he had decided to kill that thing when he had, seeing as it seemed to be filled with some sort of acidic matter. With a silent sigh, Itachi tossed the now useless kunai onto the stained bed, careful not to accidentally fling any of the corrosive goop that now coated it, before he walked the few steps back to the boy. The child was now wiping the tears from his eyes with the sleeves of his orange jacket. It appeared that the boy was a lot braver then his initial judgment had lead him to believe, if he could relatively get over his fear so quickly.

Now that he was free of tears, Itachi crouched down in front of the young child before with as soothing a voice as he could manage he spoke up. "Naruto, I know you don't know who I am, but I don't mean you any harm, and right now I really need to get you out of this building okay?" The young blond sniffled a few times before giving a shaky nod in return. "Alright, I need you to follow me, is that alright? And please stay as close as you can okay? If you need to you can hold onto me if you wish, but it's imperative that I keep you safe." when he was finished speaking the young boy slowly stood up, with himself following suit. The moment he did so, the young child reached up with a shaky arm and grabbed onto some loose cloth that occupied the area around his hip.

It honestly made him remember the days when he used to guide Sasuke around the village before he grew too old and decided to be more independent. He remembered Sasuke's declaration of wanting to be "just like his older brother". Itachi really missed those days, back when he actually had time to spend with his younger brother, but lately with tensions between his clan and Konoha rising he could never manage to find the time to spend with him anymore; something that made his heart ache. He could tell that lately his younger brother had been thinking he was doing it on purpose simply because he didn't want to spend time with him anymore, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. He wished things would just go back to normal already so he could find the time to apologize to his little brother.

But that was neither here nor now. He had to focus on keeping Naruto safe, and he vowed he'd do it as if the young blond boy was his very blood. Not just because he related the boy to his brother, but because after he'd read the reports about him, Itachi held so many sympathies towards the ill-fated Jinchuuriki, and he'd be damned if he failed the boy like so many others. It just wasn't his style. So with Naruto holding onto his pants, Itachi made his way over to the body of the creature that now lay slumped over, and ultimately blocking the path, before he gently lifted the child up into his arms and leapt over it, avoiding the acidic blood that now pooled on the floor.

Once the two of them were safely on the other side of the creature, and outside the door Itachi let the boy back down, where he once more grabbed hold of the loose fabric of his pants. Itachi could tell that the boy was incredibly scared, and he really couldn't blame him either. If this horrible place was where he had been stuck for the past few months then he had more right than anyone to be scared, and yet, just by taking a look at the boy, Itachi could see him powering through his fear with the full brunt of his bravery. It made sense, seeing as if he didn't he'd likely be killed by the monsters that may or may not be wandering his mind. The thought made Itachi curious about whether or not Naruto was actually in any real danger, seeing as they were in his own mind after all, but that was something he'd have to ask Inoichi-san about once they were out of here.

Taking a look in both directions of the narrow hallway, Itachi sighed once more; he really couldn't see much of anything. His attention however was brought down back to the boy, who was currently tugging on his pants to get his attention. He must have sensed his irritation somehow, as now in the boys hand was a small handheld light. A flashlight they were called. Where the boy might have gotten it he had no clue. Even in the real world they weren't very common, seeing as they were a relatively new invention that were typically rather expensive. On top of the price, the bulbs that went inside them weren't exactly durable nor a standard size, thusly making them expensive as well. Regardless Itachi wasn't going to sit and question the boy about something so trivial, so with a grateful nod he accepted the device from the boys outstretched hand.

Flicking the switch, a dull-orange glow emanated from the bulb, the batteries clearly being run down. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it did allow them to at least see a few feet ahead of themselves. Though, on the other end of the scale it also dulled his vision severely of everything outside of the illuminated circle; something that was only one of the reasons shinobi typically didn't use such devices. Shining the small light down the hall in both directions, Itachi made to go back the way he came, via heading back up to the third floor. After all, he still had to check to see if those sirens were still sounding off in the distance, but when he made to move, the boy that had remained silent up till then finally spoke.

"The door's the other way..." came his quiet voice. Itachi could hear the confusion in his voice, but more than that he could here just how broken the kid sounded. Not like someone who just had their entire family murdered in front of their eyes broken, but more like someone who suffered with depression. It made him feel a little uneasy, the kid was too young to sound like that. Well, that was something a Yamanaka would have to deal with when they came to that point. For now, he needed to focus on the environment. He wasn't exactly too sure how that monster had gotten behind him like that without him noticing, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let it happen again.

"We need to get to the roof before we can leave." seeing the kids brows scrunch up in even more confusion he decided to elaborate. "I didn't come here alone, but me and my squad got separated. So I'm hoping that if we can get to the roof then I might be able to see above the fog and either signal them, or at the very least I'll get a chance to get a look at our surroundings better." the boy seemed to be conflicted, but gave a nod anyways.

With the help of the dull light, Itachi found moving around inside the building a lot easier, so making their way back to the stairs wasn't too much of a hassle. As they made their way up the two flights of stairs, Itachi made sure to check each corner before he allowed Naruto to follow him. Luckily for the both of them they managed to make it up the stairs without a single problem, and we're once more on the third floor. It was here that Itachi noticed something was wrong. Through the doorway ahead, that would ultimately lead out of the stairwell and into the hallway, an incredibly foul odor was wafting out. Looking down at the boy he noticed it wasn't just affecting him. The boy's face was scrunched up in a look of disgust, and Itachi internally mirrored him.

The smell that was emanating from up ahead had to be the worst scent he'd smelled in the past year easily. It was nearly toxic in its potency too. A mixture between the scent of stewing death and burning hair, not something easily inhaled. The wretched smell burned his nose and made him want to gag, but the same responses seemed to be happening to the boy, so with not some small pity, Itachi reached into the ninja pouch he kept on his leg and pulled out a small folded cloth. The cloth was specifically designed to filter out minor airborne toxins and scents. It wasn't protective enough to say, save someone from an airborne poison, but it would help against anything that was simply harmful to breath in, acting like a filter.

Handing it to the boy, who seemed to understand immediately, he waited until the blond had it firmly placed against his mouth, with his hand covering the cloth. Itachi would just have to deal with the horrid stench, and he was fine with that, but it was this very stench that made him question if it was wise to even enter the floor at this point. Something was clearly wrong with it, but he wasn't sure if they'd get another chance. There wasn't exactly many buildings that had been open before, and he wasn't too keen on wandering aimlessly on the streets now that he knew this place wasn't safe. If they could just get to the roof than he could at least get a sense of direction.

"Do you feel safe enough to go in there with me, Naruto?" he asked the boy with concern. Even though it would be a good tactical choice to get on the roof, he wasn't just going to force a child to go into a potentially dangerous area, even if he could easily protect him. So he was going to give the boy the choice, either they go in quick, and Itachi would just kick the door to the roof down, or they would turn around and leave through an entrance on the first floor. The latter would simply require more time to figure out a game plan, while the former would let him go into this with a starting destination, or at least hopefully it would.

Once again to Naruto's credit, he seemed to find a resolve that Itachi found admirable. Almost immediately the look of concern left the boys face as he put up a brave front, and nodded up at him. Either he held a lot more faith in him to protect him, or he simply didn't want to be a burden. Either way, Itachi had a feeling the boy would remain strong through the journey ahead, so slipping a hand into the pouch that contained his kunai, Itachi removed another bladed knife and the two of them made their way into the door. By now Itachi wanted to puke; the stench having multiplied almost two-fold, but he had other things on his mind at the time. Quickly shining the light down the hall like he'd done before the difference was made immediately clear.

The floor below them made a rattling noise as they stepped onto it, the wooden flooring that had occupied the space before now seemed to be almost completely replaced by chain link fencing, which was coated in a sickly looking red substance that had to be blood, with perhaps a bit of rust underneath. It was definitely off-putting, but then again so were the walls. What once held a moldy wallpaper with stained and cracked wood now sported a dull metal sheen that gave off a cold radiance. Of course, in what seemed like a running theme these too were coated in blood and rust, making the entire room feel foreboding and deadly. In both directions, metal doors lined the walls now, marking the room as the same one he'd been in earlier.

That reminded him. Earlier when he had been examining the door that had slammed, it must have changed just like the room had now. Did that mean the entire building was slowly changing over to this grotesque imitation of it? If so, then maybe trying to get on the roof wasn't such a great idea, but he figured he'd at least take a look, after all the door that led up to it was right—

Oh...

Where the door that had led to the roof once stood, a wall of chain link was now covering. With the flashlight he could tell that a door was stuck behind the fencing, but with the tools he had on his person at the time it was ultimately out of reach. Itachi cursed, what the hell was happening to this place? He shined the light down at the boy, who had apparently been trying to look around in the dark, causing him to shut his eyes tight.

"Sorry... Just making sure you were still there," Itachi apologized, before with flashlight in one hand and kunai in the other he turned back to the door to the stairwell once more. Promoting the boy to head back through the door first, Itachi shined the light down the hall once more, only to narrow his eyes as a door on the near opposite end of the hall slowly creaked open with a rather haunting sound. He couldn't see if anything was in the room, and nothing came out from the door, but he was still on guard. This whole place had his heart beating faster and slight amounts of adrenaline pumping through his system.

Thinking it best not to linger in the doorway too long Itachi turned back to the stairwell, and cursed lightly. Naruto stood with his back pressed against the wall and his eyes closed. He'd forgotten the boy wouldn't be able to see without the light and had accidentally left him in a dark room by himself, even if it was only for a brief second. The moment the light returned to the room the boy opened his eyes once more. He quickly grabbed back onto Itachi's pants, before he moved a little closer than he'd been standing before. So he was scared... which was reasonable. He'd make it up to him later, once they had gotten the hell out of this damned place.

Itachi reached the flashlight down to the boy, who then looked up confused at him. "Take it," he spoke, shaking the flashlight in his hand lightly. The boy continued to look confused but still gently grabbed the flashlight from his hand. It was the least he figured he could do at the moment to make up for his mistake. "Just be sure to keep it pointed so I can see too okay?" the kid nodded and tucked the flashlight close to his body, pointing it down the first flight of stairs. With his now free arm, Itachi reached down and grabbed Naruto's hand. With one last glance back at the now dark room, Itachi slowly began walking down the first couple of steps, prompting the boy to do the same. He didn't know if anything dangerous was going to come from within the now dark hallway, but he didn't want to frighten the boy anymore than he no doubt already was.

"We're leaving, so since you know the way out I'm letting you take the lead okay? But if we see anything dangerous I need you to keep that light pointed at it, so I can fight it effectively, otherwise I won't be able to see." Itachi watched as the blond gulped, probably at the thought of running into danger, before they both continued walking down the flight of stairs. It was a short yet tense walk as they made their way down, but they managed to make it safely and without problem. Only, now at the bottom of the stairs, the door that led to the hallways was shut, and neither he nor Naruto had touched the door on their way up. Itachi swore he was going to have an aneurism if the door now turned out to be locked. It was like this place was trying to herd him along a specific path, and that wasn't a thought that made Itachi overly excited.

It was for this reason that he was pleasantly surprised that when he got to the door and turned the handle, it didn't lock up like the others had. No the handle turned freely, and the door opened smoothly. That joy was replaced by yet more frustration as immediately, with the door now open, a new sound made its way into the stairwell. Or it really was more like sounds. Plural. A cacophony of loud banging noises sounding out through the door way, sounding like metal being hit against other metal over and over again.

Or... meat smashing against a metal cage.

When the boy shined the light into the hallway, directly across from the door the pair quickly came to see a tall cage like structure pressed directly against the wall on opposite side of the hall. Inside something inside a bloodstained bag thrashed around violently, striking the sides of the cage repeatedly with its flaling motions. Naruto seemed like he may have panicked, as he quickly threw the light in both directions the hallway went, and his grip in his hand tightened. It was when the light was shown down the halls that they realized why it sounded so loud and numerous. Lining the hall in both directions and on both sides of the hallway, were more of those cages, each with a blood-stained bag thrashing around inside.

Itachi pulled the boy closer, pressing him directly into his side; something that the boy was clearly thankful for, before he pulled him further into the stairwell and away from the hall. "Are we still going to be able to get out this way?" he asked the boy with a raised voice so he could be heard over the noise that permeated the room. Naruto seemed to shake his head and breath deeply, an action that was often done to calm one's self down, before he took up a thoughtful expression.

"W-we should... as long as those _things_ can't hurt us." he breathed in deeply once more before speaking again, this time with more resolve. "If they can't move then all we need to do is zigzag between them down the hall to the right, and around the corner. There's an exit at the end. Or at least... there should be." the boy's voice grew quieter towards the end of his speech, but he looked up at Itachi and nodded. Itachi sighed, he didn't even want to go into that room, but it looked like they didn't have much of a choice. At the rate that the place seemed to be changing the third floor would probably already be even worse, and there might be more monsters up there.

Sighing once more to try and control his breathing, Itachi pulled Naruto closely against his body as they made their way into the hallway filled with caged creatures. It was slightly panic inducing, but he turned to the right and began walking slowly, his arm now holding the boy's back. As they made their way to the first cage, he could hear a ragged breathing coming from inside it, but he ignored that and crossed diagonally to the other side of the room, thus zigzagging and avoiding the cages. This process repeated again and again until it had been done roughly eight times, before both his and Naruto's attention was drawn to a loud bang behind them. The boy who still held the flashlight quickly spun it to look behind them, where they seen at the end of the hall, one of the cages had fallen over.

He didn't know what to think, and was about to nudge the boy and keep on moving, but just when he went to do so yet another caged flopped onto its face, crashing harshly against the floor below it. A second later a third one did the same. Soon they were falling at a rapid pace, a pace that Itachi didn't like, as they quickly fell in a pattern towards them. At the pace the we're moving they werent going to make it out of here without those cages catching up, and Itachi really wasn't in the mood to find out what would happen if they did, so he quickly grabbed Naruto around the waist and lifted him up, surprising the young boy, before he shouted over the noise in the hall, "Keep the light ahead of us!"

He quickly began running between the cages that were ahead of himself, dodging them as he made his way to the end of the hall as fast as he could. By now the cages that were falling we're hot on his heels, and it was this proximity that allowed him to hear the dull groaning that seemed to be chasing them. It was like every cage that fell would groan for a second, but as the continued to fall the groaning was drawn out and continued in a manner that made it sound like something was directly behind them chasing them. It was incredibly frightening and the boy in his arms was making soft sobbing convulsions as his brave front began to slip. Itachi was cursing when he made it to the end of the hall and turned once more to the right. He could see the door at the end of the hall now.

Above it sat an illuminated sign that read 'Exit' and seemed to taunt him. The muscles in his legs ached as he continued to push forward with all of his might, trying his damned hardest to stay ahead of the cages behind him. The groaning was growing louder and louder in his ears, and he swore that they weren't going to make it. The blood was pumping in his ears when they finally made it to the end of the hall and to the door, and by now the groaning was starting to sound a lot more like a horrible growl than anything else, but with a final grunt of exertion, Itachi threw himself into the air and spun the turn behind him so as not to hurt Naruto, before with a loud bang the duo went crashing through the door at the end of the hall and into an alleyway.

The last thing Itachi seen before they hit the stone ground below them was a dull grey face floating in the air and surrounded by darkness. The very next moment the duo were sent tumbling across the ground, grunting with each impact, before the finally came to a stop sprawled in a heap at least fifteen feet from the door the crashed through. Itachi was nearly blacking out by the time he stopped rolling, and his heart was felt like it was just about to give out. Even though he was a ninja he had never ran that hard and with so much adrenaline pumping inside his body before. Or at least, not without the use of chakra, something that would have prevented the horrible ache he felt in his legs right now.

It was with no small amount of coughing and some slight wheezing that Itachi rolled onto his side to look at the now prone form of Naruto. The boy seemed to be out cold. Whether or not that was because of hitting the ground or not he really couldn't tell, but he immediately turned his gaze in the other direction towards where they just plowed through, only to stop and stare. The door that they had shattered was lying in about a million different pieces and scattered around them in the alleyway, but the doorway that it belonged to no longer seemed to exist. Instead there was just an alleyway that lead to a solid brick wall.

He wasn't sure why, but he could feel tears now rolling down from his eyes. He didn't feel sad in the slightest, just worn down to the point of exuastion. Just what the hell did he sign up for when he accepted this mission. So far it had went from frustrating to a damn near hellish nightmare, and he hadn't even been here for more than a few hours if he had to guess. Still, at least he'd found Naruto, so that part was now out of the way. Looking at the peculiarly light grey and fog-soaked sky, Itachi only had a single other thought on his mind at the moment.

He wondered if the others were having just as shit a day as he was.

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 **And damn, I'm going to end it there. If I'm honest, writing this chapter out felt intense, and I'm not too sure why. Now I'm wondering if that same intense feeling is going to translate at all when you read it. I'd actually really like to know what you thought about this chapter in particular, so leave a review. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did it inspire even the slightest of fear or excitement? I really want to know.**

 **Well anyways, until next time!**

 **-SaucyHandles**


	4. Burdens! (re-written)

**Authors Note: Things regarding the chapter are at the end.**

 **EDIT: I've decided to re-write a good chunk of this chapter as I wasn't happy with the way it was before, so anyone wondering why they got another notification for this chapter, that would be why. You don't have to re-read it, but I do believe I've remedied a lot of the errors it held before, so it should be a lot closer to what I had pictured in my head the first time through and I'd love it if you did take the time to give it another glance.**

 **To everyone who reads this, I now have a poll up on my profile page in regards to the potential future pairing of the story, so please go vote on it! I estimate there to be about another 3-4 chapters before I'm going to close the poll and then we'll see who the top three choices are! So go vote!**

 **Onwards with the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Silent Hill.**

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 **Harbinger of Repentance**

 **Chapt** **er Four**

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Leaned up against a brick wall, Itachi stared at the unconscious boy in front of him. He couldn't do much at the moment, and trying to move the boy wasn't something he wanted fight with right now. No he would just have to stay rested on the ground for a bit while he recovered his strength. With a sigh, Itachi took a moment to study his surroundings. The alley they had been thrown into was a lot wider than the one he'd been in on his way into the apartment, but was also filled with a lot more fog, which was currently preventing him from seeing where it lead to. Other than the fog there wasn't anything of importance within sight, just him and the young blond boy. He was thankful for that fact considering he really wasn't in the mood to get in a fight with any more monsters.

It wasn't that he couldn't, but when one ran as hard as he did without stretching first the muscles in the legs were bound to hurt afterwards, and they did. Even though he was a shinobi his body wasn't exactly immune to getting muscle cramps and other various bodily ailments, it was just training that let a shinobi manage the way they moved better. Usually the use of chakra to strengthen the muscles would have prevented the strain he had put on them, but in this cursed place chakra didn't seem to be usable in any way, shape, or form, and as such he was paying the price right now in the form of sore muscles. The pain would go away in a minute or two, and his legs would just become slightly stiff, but it was still an annoyance.

If a monster happened to stumble its way into them he wasn't sure he could take it. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He could take one of those shambling bags of flesh easily, so long as it didn't have any tricks, but he'd have to do it while in pain and that wouldn't be fun. Really, right now he wished he could just go to sleep, but that wasn't a possibility and would likely be a mistake that he'd regret. the last thing he needed was to either be kicked to death in his sleep, or melted alive. He still had little clue how that thing was supposed to attack.

His gaze eventually rested upward toward the sky, having little else to look at. It was now the same dull grey it had been when he'd first awoken in the place. That brought the question of what exactly did the darkening sky earlier mean if not the end of a day? And what about those sirens? It was too coincidental that they both happened simultaneously, and after what he'd just experienced in those apartments, he didn't think those things boded well for anyone. If the sirens only represented that shit was going to hit the fan, then that put him back at square one in terms of finding the others. Without a direction or goal to travel towards, he wasn't sure what to do anymore.

He'd found the target, but that meant very little when he didn't know the method used to get them all out of here. Only Inoichi-san knew how to manage such a feat, so he wasn't in much luck in terms of finishing the mission. Of course, both him and Neko-san had been informed of the _other_ means of exiting this place, through the death of the target, but Itachi figured that Hokage-sama had only informed them of that method out of the kindness of his heart. It wasn't like either him or Neko-san were likely to ever use that means of exit, seeing as doing so would mean the full release of the Kyuubi, and countless deaths that would occur in the near future afterwards. No, while he didn't know Neko-san on a personal level, all members of the Anbu were loyal to the village without a fault and wouldn't hesitate to give their lives for it.

Itachi sighed as the cold brick behind him soothed the ache in his back. While the door had virtually exploded, it took quite a bit of force to do so, and his back had taken the brunt of said force. He hadn't checked but he was pretty sure there was at least one shard of the door stabbing him right now. He doubted it was actually bad enough to need immediate attention, and at the moment he'd rather just sit here and enjoy the comfort the cold wall was providing him. He'd give himself another few minutes before he got up and checked on the boy. The only reason he didn't feel overly anxious about the boy's condition was due to the fact that he could see his chest moving from where he was, so everything was okay at the moment. However, if he took up the task of trying to carry the boy without giving himself the needed time to rest things could go bad fast.

It was during the time spent silently contemplating what he was going to do when they started moving again that he remembered something. Reaching into the pouch that held some of his more miscellaneous shinobi equipment, he pulled out a single wireless headset. He'd already tried to use it to contact the others a couple of times since he'd left the park, but each time he'd gotten nothing but white noise. However, that was at least an hour ago by his estimation, so slipping the device over his ear he tapped the button to turn the device on. He was immediately satisfied when there was a distinct lack of noise coming in through the device, so with a few rotations of a tiny wheel he proceeded to switch through the various channels.

The others had the same devices on them, but if they were in a situation anything like his own, then they had already surmised the devices didn't work upon their arrival, and if that happened to be the case they may have stored them away like he had. He hoped that one of the others would happen to have their own radio's on, otherwise it wouldn't matter if it worked or not seeing as any attempt at communication he sent wouldn't be received by anyone. As he flipped through the various channels he ran through a short predetermined dialogue to prompt others listening in to respond. When he reached the last frequency and still had not received a reply, he ran through the channels again, only silently this time.

The sound of a grunt brought Itachi's attention to the orange-clad boy laying in front of him as he slowly began to move. It seemed that young Naruto was able to beat him in terms of recovery. A soft smile adorned Itachi's face, an action that had as of late had become reserved for his younger brother's eyes only, but he couldn't help it. To see such a unique child was rather inspiring. The boy had been able to cope with this place for months, stare a nightmare in the face with resolve, and wake up from unconsciousness in mere minutes. In his opinion the boy would make a fine shinobi, so long as he was treated fairly by his future instructors. His smile took a sudden downward curve; there wasn't exactly a good chance of that occurring. While no Konoha shinobi would ever outright harm the boy, he doubted their bias against him would do anything to help him either.

Before Naruto even knew why, the world was already stacked against him and his reputation was ruined. Any hope of an easy life was gone the day people stopped viewing him as a human. Itachi shook his head, his dark bangs swaying back and forth reminding him he still didn't have his mask on. Oh well, it couldn't be helped now. With a grunt of his own he lightly pushed away from the wall before using an arm to raise himself from the cement ground beneath himself. His muscles did indeed feel stiff, and his back was still in quite a bit of pain, but he could worry about that stuff later, right now he had to continue his mission. A quick moment later and Itachi was standing before a now sitting Naruto, who looked lost for a moment as he gazed around through bleary eyes, before they came to rest on Itachi's form.

"So you're finally awake huh?" he spoke, a soft smile once more adorning his face. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to carry you." reaching an arm down, Itachi held it in the air for a second as the boy seemed to finally come to and grasped his hand in return. A light tug later and the boy was now standing on his own two feet. He suddenly looked sheepish all of a sudden, a smile of his own now adorning his face for the first time since Itachi had met him.

"Heh, how long was I out for?" the boy asked, an arm now rubbing the back of his head. Itachi figured the mood change had to be because they were finally out of that damn building, but he wasn't too sure. Regardless, it didn't really matter now anyways.

"Hmm, only about ten or so minutes," Itachi responded, before curiosity took control. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to just leave you on the ground but..." he trailed off as he realized just how bad that sounded. Oh hey did you hit your head? I was too busy leaning against this wall to check! Itachi however couldn't help but to shake his head when the boy just looked up at him in confusion.

"Huh?"

He almost palmed his face at that response; the boy seemed to have a thick skull in more ways than one. Even so, many a great shinobi started out from worse positions in life, all that was needed was someone to take Naruto's potential and shape him into a capable shinobi. The brief thought of doing himself crossed Itachi's mind for a second before it was immediately crushed. If he was going to spend time training someone it had to be his little brother; the look on his face would be priceless to see. Not that he disliked the thought of training Naruto, he just owed his brother for all the time he'd been unable to train him in the past. Itachi settled for an amused smile as he looked at the boy's confused face.

"Nevermind, we should probably get going though." turning to look at the opposite end of the ally, Itachi figured they'd just have to keep moving and hope they stumbled upon the others as they went. A thought then occurred to him, if Naruto knew where the exit was in that building did he know his way around the town? "Hey Naruto," he said, bringing the kid's full attention to himself, "any chance you might know your way around the area?"

"Yeah!" the blond shouted, before his face turned slightly downtrodden. "Well, not really... I mean, I know some places but does that count?" the look the boy was sending him made it clear he wanted to be helpful, but wasn't sure if he could be.

Humming to himself, Itachi nodded in acceptance. "Well, that's a start. So what other places are there?" if he could get an idea of the key places then that'd likely be wise to check in for the others.

"Well," the boy began, a finger pressed to his chin, "there's the lake with a park that's next to it; the doctor's place; a huge red tower and a school next to it; uhm... then there's a door inside of a place full of bottles, it has a tunnel that leads under it, but I've never gone too far inside and I'm not sure where it is from here..." his face scrunched up as he clearly had a hard time thinking of more.

"Thank you Naruto, that should be enough for now," Itachi said, hoping the boy wouldn't hurt himself with how hard he seemed to be thinking about it. From those places he got a general idea of where he actually was. If there was a large tower with a school, that had to be the administrative building that housed the Hokage's office, and the academy that was connected to the same building, but a different branch, so they were essentially one and the same in terms of location. If he had any chance of finding the others than it was probably going to be there. Thinking about what else the boy had said he figured 'the doctor's place' was the hospital, and 'a place full of bottles' had to be a bar of some kind, but a tunnel going underneath it? Maybe it would be worth checking out at some point.

"Is there anyway you'd know how to get to the academy from here?" seeing that the boy didn't understand what he meant he reworded the question. "I mean, is there a way to get to the school with the tower from here?"

Naruto looked down with a shake of his head. "Not really... those are just places I've been before, I haven't gone back to them." he replied, his voice growing a little quieter.

Itachi let out an audible sigh before he spoke up once more. "Hey, don't worry about it, we'll get there eventually. All we have—

His attempt at reassuring the boy was cut off when a loud screeching and buzzing noise began blaring in his ear. The radio? He'd forgotten about it when Naruto had begun to awaken, but why was it making such an awful noise? He couldn't imagine the thing would be broken all of a sudden. Pulling it from his hear, Itachi tried to figure out what was going on, much to the confusion of the orange-clad boy that currently had no clue why he'd just stopped talking. The buzzing was still rather loud even without it in his ear and only seemed to get worse with each second that passed, before a moment later the buzzing was soon accompanied by the sound of footsteps coming from the fog.

Throwing the switch on the radio into the 'off' position, Itachi immediately placed it back within the pouch he'd removed it from, before drawing out another kunai. Turning to the confused boy, who now was looking around fearful, he addressed him with a stern voice. "Naruto, I need you to get behind me!" the boy nodded his head before doing as he was told. A second later and Itachi was positioned in front of the boy in a defensive stance. With the buzzing of the radio now gone the sound of footsteps was noticeably growing louder, something that even Naruto noticed, before a figure's warbled silhouette was seen within the fog. Immediately Itachi's mind ran back to the creature from within the apartments.

His assumptions were proven correct when a moment later, the creature was close enough to visibly see. It's stretchy, bag-like skin was covering the body just like the other one, with it's long slender legs being free to move. It slowly, and shakily made its way towards them, before it seemed to acknowledge their presence and began to let out the same disgusting grunts and gagging noises the other one had made. Itachi let it get close enough to where it, much like its predecessor, lurched backwards in a arching fashion no doubt in preparation to attack. That was the moment that Itachi was looking for, and the moment that he struck. Lunging forward Itachi quickly plunged the kunai into the creature face, directly through where an eye would normally be, before he ripped it out and repeated the process.

Just like before after around five plunges the creature let out a loud choking sound as it quickly tumbled to the ground. As soon as it had Itachi quickly tossed the blood soaked kunai away from himself, it having already melted to the point of being useless. He also noticed that the attack had sprayed a bit of acidic blood onto his gloves; only a few drops but they still continued to sizzle away. He could feel the light burning as the acid soon began to eat its way through the cloth, and onto his hands, so acting fast he tore the cloth items from his person and tossed them onto the ground as well. This wasn't good, he couldn't feasibly fight these things with the equipment he had on him. He didn't have enough kunai to keep wasting them against these creatures, and such a short weapon still put him within range of stray blood.

Turning to make sure that Naruto was okay, Itachi motioned the boy forward. "As I was saying... You don't have to worry about getting us there okay? We'll find it soon, and when we do we'll be that much closer to getting you out of here." Itachi made to move forward but Naruto's voice stopped him.

"Hey... about that," the boy began, sounding unsure, "I've been meaning to ask you just what you mean by that? At first I thought you meant out of the apartments, but you're still saying it. What do you mean by 'getting me out of here'?"

Turning suddenly, Itachi looked at the kid incredulously. What did he mean, 'what of you mean'? There was no way he didn't realize this was all in his head. Seriously, this place was so oppressive and dark. How could he have gone almost half a year without realizing that? While Itachi still didn't know much about the mind's condition during a coma, he couldn't logically believe someone wouldn't see something wrong with this place. After all, there were actual monsters wandering around, and buildings that could become something straight from someone's nightmares. For the kid to not even have realized that something was wrong hadn't even crossed his mind.

"Naruto... just how much do you know about this place?" Itachi asked slowly, causing the boy to look at him like he was crazy.

"What do you mean?"

Itachi let loose a slow breath. "I mean, don't you realize this place isn't normal? Don't you remember anything about Konoha?" from the way things were currently going the kid was in for a bombshell, and as soon as the words left his mouth the child in front of him began looking increasingly confused; something that was starting to make Itachi nervous. The kid _had_ to know, and he had to tell him. He just had no idea how he was supposed to tell a little boy that he was in a coma because a few people were sadistic and had tortured him. "Look Naruto, that thing on the ground," he said, motioning towards the now dead creature a few feet away, "what does it look like to you?"

The boy looked completely bewildered, squinting his eyes at him like he was starting to go insane. "I still don't get what you mean, it's just a regular monster... the same as the rest!" Naruto spoke, putting a little more force into his voice towards the end.

Itachi sighed; there it was. He had said that as if the monster laying on the ground was a normal everyday occurrence, rather than something that was unusual. Either he had grown used to them over the months he'd been in here, or he _really_ didn't realize that this wasn't the real world. "Naruto, that thing laying on the ground isn't normal, it isn't real. _None_ of this is real. What I meant earlier by 'get you out of here' was that I'm trying to get you out of this _place_ , and get you back to the real Konoha." there, he had told the boy the truth. Or at least part of it...

However, to his dismay the child's confusion filled face slowly turned into one of distrust as he took a few shaky steps away from him. "I don't believe you... You're insane!"

Itachi made to take a step towards the boy, with his hands up in a placating manner, but when he did so the boy took yet another step back, looking at him now as if he expected him to turn into a monster at any second. "Naruto, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm trying to tell you the truth, that's all." Itachi stood still for a moment with his arms held up, giving the boy a moment to calm down. "Look, maybe in the past some people were idiots and blamed you for things they shouldn't have, and maybe there are some people out there that trea—

"What do you mean _some_?!" Naruto suddenly shouted out in anger, cutting him off. The outburst had surprised him a bit, and from the looks of things it had also surprised the boy himself, as he now had a hand over his own mouth and his eyes were wide open in shock. It was clear the boy hadn't expected to yell at him like that, and wasn't sure why he had. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that..."

"It's okay Naruto, I know you didn't mean to yell," Itachi said, hoping to get the boy to calm down. He could tell that fear was starting to build up inside the kid as he was still incredibly confused about everything. "It's just... I'm not going to hurt you okay? The truth is... this is all in your head. None of it is real. I'm here to take you back to Konoha. Things shouldn't be like _this!_ " he gestured to the world around himself before attempting to take another step towards the boy. This time when he did so, the boy didn't flinch away, instead he just continued to stand there.

When Itachi had gotten within an arms reach from the boy, the kid had his head pointed towards the ground, his hair blocking view of his face as he spoke. "Just... just who are you?" the boy asked quietly, "W-why are you being so... so different?" Itachi watched as stray tears fell from behind the child's hair, so he was surprised when the kid's head suddenly shot up and a look of anger was now adorning his features. "The things you're saying don't make any sense! I-I don't understand what you mean! This _is_ Konoha, it's always been like this! You should know that!" even though the boy still looked angry, tears streamed down his peach-colored cheeks.

Itachi quickly stepped forward the last few steps and enveloped the boy in a hug. He could feel the boy's body convulsing as he held him. He didn't know exactly why he had done so, just that he had to. "Naruto, please calm down, you're safe okay?" with the kid held in a hug, Itachi couldn't see the boy's face, but he could still hear the panicked words that slipped out in between choking sobs.

"I-I dont e-even know why I-I'm crying!" Naruto shouted out, before he quieted. The sounds of his involuntary crying was all that was heard for a moment before, with a hard shove Naruto pushed himself away from Itachi. "Y-you said... t-that this was all i-in my head? How c-can that be?! You're r-right here! You've seen how this village is!" Naruto had a look of fear now on his face once again. "I'm n-not making this up! I'm not crazy! I mean... I mean... ughhh!" clutching violently at his head, Naruto began to thrash around. "I-I don't understand! Why are you doing this to me?! I just want to be... to be..."

Itachi quickly moved forward as the boy's breathing visibly hitched; a dazed look had suddenly appeared on his face as he suddenly began to collapse. With a swift motion Itachi caught the boy in his arms before he could hit the ground and lowered him slowly down into a laying position. He had no idea what had happened. He didn't to stress the boy out like he had, he was only trying to tell him the truth and he just started to panic. It had to have something to do with how the mind dealt with traumatic experiences, but Itachi was far from being an expert in such things. He desperately needed to get this kid to Inoichi if he was going to figure anything out.

It looked like he was going to be carrying the boy's unconscious form after all.

Gently as he could, Itachi raised the kid into his arms, before positioning him over his shoulder. There was no way he was going to be able to fight like this, so he was going to have to try his damn best to avoid anymore of those creatures. From the way the acid burned through a kunai he could tell that it would only take one direct shot to likely kill both Naruto and himself. Melting to death wasn't a way he wished to go, even if it only happened within someone else's mind. For the hundredth time that day Itachi let out a sigh; all this mental business was turning out to be a massive pain in the ass. There was no way he'd ever accept another mission like this one in the future. There was simply too much that he couldn't understand, and most of it was because it wasn't his mind he was trying to understand.

He vowed however that once all this was over he was going to request a temporary leave of duty and spend some time with Sasuke. That, and sleep. Yeah, sleep for a solid day.

With the boy now secured on his shoulder, Itachi slowly began making his way away from the dead end of the alley when a thought occurred to him. With a little re-positioning he reached with a free arm into the pouch that he'd stored the radio in before and removed it. If that noise happened because that monster was close by then it might come in handy to have with him. Turning it on, Itachi place it over his ear. That way, now if a monster was nearby he should be able to get a heads up and hopefully be able to avoid them better. It wasn't a perfect plan, but after everything he'd done in the short time that he'd been here, it was the best he could think up at the moment.

Radio now on and giving off very little static, and boy now slumped over his shoulders, Itachi slowly began making his way into the fog.

* * *

For the twentieth time in the last fifteen minutes, Itachi re-positioned the boy that sat on his shoulder so he wouldn't slip off, before wincing as a pain lanced through his legs. Since he'd left the alleyway, he had quickly learned two things...

One, being that the alley broke off onto a dirt road, not unlike the one he'd first been on when he had began his search; and two, the radio did indeed act as some sort of early warning system when a monster was nearby. He had no clue why it did so, just that anytime a creature was just beyond his vision through the fog his radio would flair up in more screeching noises that hurt his ears. However, even with the ability to know when he was potentially in harms way, it still didn't help him in regards to actually avoiding them.

Every time the radio went off the most information he got from it was that he had to be on guard, and that didn't exactly help him too much when he could never tell what direction the creatures might come stumbling out from, and with the fog it made seeing them before they were close enough to attack difficult. There had already been multiple instances where the radio had gone off and he'd been jogging with the boy in his arms, only for the creatures to come stumbling out from the very direction he'd been going.

He'd learned to simply remain patient after the second time, when one of those things had been in front of him while he'd been jogging; it had surprised him seeing as the radio for some reason hadn't gone off until he'd already damn near ran into the thing.

The second it took to register the creatures presence was apparently a second too long as the thing had already had its back arched. It was during this particular encounter that Itachi learned for a fact that they _did_ indeed spray acid. Once it's back was arched it had quickly thrown its head forward in a lunging fashion, and from a slit that had appeared where a mouth should be, a torrent of liquid spewed forth. This liquid however was different from the acidic blood that he'd encountered so far; for starters, it wasn't thick like the blood was, and was much more comparable to water, seeing as once it was spewed it turned into something akin to a cloud of mist, with anything that had been touched quickly dissolving.

At the time he'd thought that by having shoved his way past it in his run that he'd been safe, but the thing could seemingly turn on a dime. The moment he was 'safely' passed the creature it had managed to turn around, and that when it shot forth the liquid from its mouth. The cloud had had much more range to it than he had been anticipating and the second he'd taken to glance back had cost him. The cloud had started out thin before it quickly thickened as it traveled forward. He had at the time thought that he had gotten the two of them a safe distance away, but that assumption had been based of the creatures blood not this new substance.

When he'd finally realized that they were indeed still within its range, he had thrown both himself and Naruto out of the way, yet unfortunately he learned that he hadn't been fast enough to avoid it entirely and had caught both of his legs within the mist.

It wasn't something that he'd immediately noticed, as the next moment he had grabbed the downed boy and continued running once more to get away, but it was quickly brought to his attention when he'd started to feel a sharp stinging sensation in the back of his legs. If he had to compare it to something off the top of his head, it felt as if a horde of wasps had decided to swarm and attack only his legs. he hadn't noticed while he'd been running, but once the acid had eaten through the material of his pants in certain spots, and had gotten on his bare skin, the pain had quickly shown itself. Itachi had to hold in a scream when the burning became so bad that he'd dropped the young boy he'd been carrying and collapsed to the ground.

The experience of having his legs burned with acid was horrible, and the fear that had set in quickly wasn't much better. He had no idea what he could possibly do to stop the acid's progress through his flesh, and the blood that had quickly started to run down from both of his legs was worrisome. It was while his racing mind was trying to come up with a solution that an unexpected relief came. Without him needing to do anything, the sound of sizzling that had up until that point marked the horrid melting of his flesh disappeared on its own, and the pain that was causing involuntary tears to spill from his eyes was greatly reduced.

It was only after his pain clouded mind had cleared enough for him to think straight that he came to a conclusion that he wouldn't forget; the acid those creatures spit out was vastly different from the blood in the way that it was much more potent but seemed to only last a short amount of time. Even so, the wounds on his legs were still in need of medical attention. The flesh on the back of his legs had been damaged enough to look truly awful, and had melted far enough that the bleeding it caused was actually threatening.

It wasn't the type of damage to cripple someone to the point that they could no longer walk, but it was definitely bad enough that he was forced to apply a special burn cream, and bandage both of his legs tightly to stop the bleeding.

Once he had fought through the pain and bandaged his legs, he had immediately dug a couple pain killers out from his supplies and downed them. The burning in his legs mixed with the still noticeable ache of his muscles was simply too much at that point for him to be able to walk, let alone run. It was while he'd been waiting for the pain killers to kick in that he'd realized just how bad things could have been for both himself and the boy he carried had he not jumped out of the way in time. If the acid had done as much damage as it had through his clothing, he didn't want to imagine what direct skin contact would be like.

He was sure that if it had started out directly on his skin that it would have easily eaten through to the muscle beneath, and that thought terrified him. It would have only taken a very small amount of damage to the muscle to have crippled him, and prevented him from continuing the mission. Not to mention the inability to move likely would have spelled his, and the young boy's, certain and gruesome deaths.

Before it had just been a bad thought, but after suffering the effects first hand the horrible reality settled on him. Even with all of his training as a shinobi, without chakra he was incredibly vulnerable while he was still trapped within this place. Death was actually a possibility, and now that he was faced with that potential outcome, he couldn't help the bit off fear that settled in his heart. This place wasn't like the real world, there was no way he could plan for the things that happened here. Things changed much too rapidly and without warning. It was already proving to him that learning to adapt was going to be vital in a place like this; his legs were now proof of that fact.

It had taken almost ten minutes for the pain killers to kick in and start working enough to dull the aching in his legs, and once they finally had he held more resolve than ever to keep the boy safe. He was an Anbu captain, and he'd be damned if he was going to die in a place like this. No, he still had to see his brother again and make up for the time he'd been neglecting him. He'd vowed from that moment on, no matter how bad things got he'd always keep Sasuke safe, and for that promise to be fulfilled he needed to keep Naruto safe as well, so with a grunt of exertion he once more hefted the unconscious boy onto his shoulder. He _would_ make it to the academy, and he _would_ find the others so they could all leave together as a squad.

* * *

From that moment onward, Itachi had been taking things a lot slower. He no longer ran through the fog—partially due to his damaged legs—and he no longer deemed to take these creatures as lightly as he had been before. Sure they were slow, but from that last encounter it had been proven they held tricks of their own. Now whenever he heard the radio start buzzing he held still and waited for a direct line of sight before he deemed himself ready to move. Doing so revealed just how rewarding a little bit of patience could be. The creatures were easy enough to avoid entirely when he knew where they were, and didn't run head first into them. Sure, his progress in terms of finding the tower and the academy was moving at a painstakingly slow pace, but making sure he survived long enough to do so mattered more.

So far he'd made his way down four different roads, each seemingly spanning the length of Konoha, but still had no luck. All the buildings and stores he passed by were distinctly Konoha in design, but even so he hadn't actually been able to get a feel for the area or recognize any of the street names. At times, more of the roads seemed to be cut off just like the one before, and also just like the one before he was forced to travel through side paths, which were usually more alleyways between various shops and houses. It was extremely tiring traveling such distances, especially when he had to carry a child in his arms, and with the painkillers wearing off periodically.

Without the painkillers to dull the throbbing pain in his legs, the pain would grow in intensity and force him to take a rest while he took more of the small pills.

It was at such a time while he was forced to wait for the painkillers to kick in that he began to seriously question whether or not he should start looking for the hospital instead. As it were, the amount of painkillers he'd been taking was already starting to become dangerous, and encroach into the territory of an overdose, but he had no choice; the flesh on the back of his legs had turned out to be worse than he'd originally thought. When he'd last sat to change the bandages wrapping them, as they'd become soaked in his blood, he'd seen just how bad the damage was.

The acid hadn't simply eaten a little bit of his skin like he'd originally thought, instead there was actual portions of his skin that had actually eroded down to the muscle like he'd feared. Luckily none of the wounds seemed to have damaged the muscle enough to keep him from walking, but the bleeding still hadn't stopped, and he was already running low on bandages. While the wounds didn't seem to be bad enough to cripple him, the damage was to the point where using the bandages like he had been did little more than slow the bleeding down to a semi-safe pace, and even then it only transferred the danger to however long his blood-pills were going to last for.

On top of the numerous painkillers he'd taken, he'd already had to take a blood-pill so he wouldn't pass out from blood-loss, and even though he still had about nine more, in a place like this he had no idea of he'd be able to get any more. Then there were his worries over how quickly he was going through his supply of bandages. At some point he was definitely going to have to get more if he was going to survive for any practical amount of time. Itachi really didn't think he was going to have any choice but to make his way to the hospital to try and find more supplies, but seeing as he'd already been searching for hours to locate the academy, and still hadn't done so, he didn't exactly hold to much hope that he'd be able to find the hospital.

As it were, he could feel sweat starting to collect around his forehead, even though he wasn't physically exhausted, nor was he overheating. No, the cool wall of the alley he'd tucked them into was doing well enough at keeping his body temperature down, but even still he could feel himself losing energy and fast. Itachi winced as another spike of pain emanated from his legs. The wound was likely becoming infected, and if got any worse he really was going to lose his ability to walk. He desperately needed to find somewhere he could stop at for more than a few minutes to care to his wounds in a more effective manner, but he'd already been wandering around for hours and still hadn't managed to find the damn tower.

His morale was running lower than it had ever been since he'd first started this mission, when he rose himself up from the cold and slightly damp floor of the alley. With a slight wince, he picked Naruto up from the leaning position he'd left him in. Once more Itachi forced all his resolve into pushing forward in the hopes that he'd finally find where he needed to be, and once more with a grunt he began walking. The alley he'd found himself in this time was incredibly narrow, and the buildings that surrounded it were only a single story high, which in turn allowed plenty of light into the gap between them. He was honestly thankful for the light, because if things were as dark as they had been inside those apartments he severely doubted that he'd ever be able to build the strength needed to keep moving forwards.

It was with these thoughts, and a lowering will to continue that Itachi once more broke out onto a new road. Hoping that this was the right roa—

His eyes shot wide open and a huge sigh of relief escaped from his pale lips. Just down the road to the right a little ways, the silhouette of a multi-tiered tower could be seen through the dense fog. A light laugh escaped his lips as the usually stoic look slipped from his face and was replaced with a sincere smile as he gazed at the tower. Finally, after all the time he'd spent, and all the pain he'd gone through, his goal was right in front of him. Once he got inside he'd finally be within a reasonable location where he could potentially find the others.

Moving slightly faster than he had been before, and also with a noticeable limp, Itachi quickly made his way over to the front doors of the building, before after freeing a hand, he hefted the door open and made his way through. Once he was fully inside, he realized something that made him smile even more. The layout of this building seemed to be the same as the actual Hokage tower, as the room he was in he recognized immediately as the reception area of the Administrative branch, meaning that of he continued up the stairs nearby he'd only be a short hallway away from the Hokage's office. Wiping the accumulated sweat from his forehead, and fighting away the drowsiness that licked at his consciousness, he began making his way towards where the stairs were located.

* * *

A tiring trek up three flights of stairs later, and Itachi was standing outside the Hokage's office. It was odd for him to take the stairs, seeing as he'd usually used one of the windows inside the office for travel, usually via Shunshin. But since he had no choice but to take the stairs, what would usually only take a second wound up taking closer minutes. Five tiring minutes, as he carried the unconscious form of the boy with him.

However, there wasn't much cheer in his accomplishment to be had, as another problem had presented itself.

The leg intensive act of walking up the vast amount of stairs had left the bandages that were on his legs absolutely soaked in his blood, to the point where it was actually running down his legs and into his shinobi sandals. He could already feel the effects of blood-loss draining his energy, so quickly he pushed his way through the doors ahead of himself. His relief from finding the building was immediately dropped as the room he now stood inside was completely empty, minus the wooden desk inside that held the kanji for 'Kage' on the front of it alongside the villages stylized leaf symbol. Behind the desk sat a large chair, with multiple windows spanning the wall behind both of them. Through them he could see that the fog was just as bad up here as it had been down on the ground level, and as such prevented him from seeing anything out them.

Coughing into his hand for a moment, Itachi realized he was still rapidly loosing blood, so he swiftly made his way over to the side of the room, where he then laid the blond-haired child down as gently as he could. Once that was out of the way, Itachi quickly removed another blood-pill before swallowing it. It took a moment but he felt himself perk up a little bit more, as the drowsiness was slowly lifted from his tired mind. He practically slumped his way down the wall, as at the moment he didn't think he could manage to energy needed to sit properly, before he took a look at the bloodied bandages on his legs.

Removing a kunai and another roll of bandages, he carefully cut the old ruined ones away. Even with the care he took, he still let out a loud pained grunt as his face contorted into a tight expression of agony. The blood had already started to clot and scab over, and removing the bandages had tore away the semi healed chunks of coagulated blood from the deepest of the wounds. A sickly yellow substance mixed in with the red and immediately began to stream out from the worst of the melted areas, forcing him to fight back the tears that stung his eyes. He didn't have any water to clean out the wound, and the painkillers had already started to wear off, so any and all contact with the swollen and red area brought forth a tremendous amount of pain at this point.

It hurt incredibly bad, but Itachi managed to remove the old bandages from his leg and replace them with an entire new roll, tripling the thickness of the previous times he'd bandaged it in the hopes it would last longer. He still had to survive long enough for the others to eventually find their way here and by extension find both him and Naruto. Once they did all of them could finally go home, and he'd get to see his little brother once again. Even with the horrible pain he was in, he still found himself thinking about Sasuke.

Tears now freely fell from his eyes. He just felt so damn helpless right now... He was already becoming increasingly sick from his wounds, and there wasn't much he could do about it. He didn't want to die here without getting to apologize to Sasuke, and tell him how much he cared about him.

Striking the wooden floor with a bloody palm, Itachi let a few sobs escape from his mouth. He was simply too tired to hold it in anymore. He remained strong and stoic in front of all his comrades, and even Hokage-sama, but even before this mission things had been building up inside. Emotions that frustrated him to no end, and thoughts that belonged to someone that should be put on suicide watch. He was so beyond tired of everything right now. He was sick of his power hungry clan, he was sick of Danzo and his scheming, he was sick of trying to pretend that he could handle it all; but more than anything he was sick of not getting to be who he wanted to be.

He was sick and tired of not getting to be the older brother he desperately wanted to be for Sasuke, and it was finally showing.

He openly cried for the first time in years to an empty room inside a hellish nightmare, as his control over his emotions slipped piece by piece. He didn't know how much more he could take anymore. There was a good chance he was going to die here, and he felt like there wasn't anything that he could do anymore to stop it. He had come into this mission with a bright outlook over his abilities, but that had quickly turned into a dull, distorted, rust covered image of them. Without chakra he had barely managed to survive, and with all of his other skills, many of them still relied on at least a basic form of chakra manipulation. He wasn't much better than a talented civilian right now, and because of it he was dying.

Fear and grief clouded mind was cleared violently when a sharp shock of pain ran through his leg, reminding him he had only patched one of them. With a deep intake of air, Itachi proceeded to repeat the process again with the other leg.

* * *

It was horrible, and he had wound up needing to take another blood-pill to make up for having let his emotions and thoughts wander, but he had managed to get it done. The wooden floor below him was drenched in a rather large puddle of blood, and he could feel his mind viciously trying to drag him into unconsciousness, alongside his blond companion. He knew there wasn't much he would be able to do to stop it, so shakily raising himself from the floor he limped his way over to the desk in the middle of the room, leaving bloody footsteps in his wake. When he got behind it he noticed something he hadn't before.

Sitting on the desk was a single peice of paper and at the top of it was his name.

Reading it Itachi let out a yell of frustration that if you were to tell anyone that knew him about, they'd say you were either insane or were talking about a different Itachi. The yell that escaped from his mouth was louder than he'd ever been in the last five years, and it quickly devolved into an animalistic battle-cry, as he grabbed the edges of the desk and proceeded to push it as hard as he could while running. It quickly slid across the floor, before with a loud crash it was slammed all the way against the door, blocking it entirely and preventing either side from opening.

Huffing in air harshly Itachi's anger stricken face eventually morphed back into a tired look of resignation, as he shakily hobbled his way over to the blond-haired boy that lay on the floor, looking as if he were simply sleeping after a tiring day. He simply continued to stare at the boy, before a moment later the same kunai he'd used to remove his bloody bandages earlier was once again in his hand, blood still dripping from the blade. As he stood there with the knife, feeling the cold metal in his bloody palm, a dark thought crossed his exhausted mind.

There was another way that guaranteed his survival...

There was another way out...

Another way that would let him see Sasuke again...

Raising the kunai into the air as he stared at the unconscious little boy in front of him, he raised the bladed weapon back a little more, before he brought his hand forward rapidly as the blade flew from his palm. A second later and a dull thunk was heard as the blade embedded itself into the wooden floor, a mere few inches away from the boy's face.

He couldn't do it.

He wanted to see Sasuke again, but there was no way he could do so knowing he killed someone that was the same age as him, and in another lifetime could have been his brother as well. He'd already seen too much death; seen too much war. He didn't want to have any part in the blood that was spilled on a daily basis. He didn't want to sacrifice who he was for the sake of his own greed. Sasuke would never forgive him. His head was starting to spin, and his legs were in absolute agony, but he only had a single painkiller left. Reaching a trembling hand into the pouch that contained his first aid supplies Itachi slowly raised a single blood-stained pill to his lips—

And proceeded to fall backwards as his consciousness left him.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

 **Holy shit... This chapter just did not want to be written. I struggled so hard for the entire first third of it and then it just started flowing together. I personally think it's the best chapter yet, and I'm hoping that sentiment is shared by you all as well. Anyways, I feel like this is a long one, but I haven't checked. Regardless, I'm sorry for the wait on it. I think it's been what? Four days since my last update on it? While that doesn't seem like a long time, this story has been flowing so smoothly that I should have been able to get this out two days ago.**

 **EDIT: After rereading this, I'm not so sure about its quality. I mean, there are parts that don't blend well, and my struggle with writing it out in one go seems to have damaged the pacing. :/** **If I'm honest this chapter went a lot better in my head than it managed to be on the screen.**

 **EDIT(2): I've done a large-scale re-write of a good proportion of this chapter, and wound up adding about an extra two-thousand words to it.**

 **Anyways, please leave me a nice long review!**

 **-SaucyHandles**


	5. Awakening

**AN: late chapter, I explained why at the end. Also, first Naruto-centric chapter! Enjoy!**

 **Also, the poll leaders are Anko, Tayuya, and Kurenai. With the runner ups being Karin and Mei T. so I'd really like it if you all would leave a review for the chapter and who of the ones up there you'd like to see in the pairing. I might lean towards a harem, or multiple progressive relationships. I don't know yet.**

* * *

 **Harbinger of Repentance**

 **Chapter Five**

* * *

The sound of wind whistling its way through the gaps in a door permeated around an otherwise silent room. It was a sound that seemed almost unnatural in the way it slowly moved across the nearly empty expanse, as if it were nothing more than a bunch of disembodied whispers being carried in on the breeze they followed. A chill ran across the room as the sounds slowly shifted their way opposite of where they came from, rolling inside like a creeping fog, an effect that was only reinforced by the grey light that trickled in through the nearby windows, casting the room in a dull and empty atmosphere.

It was to these things that a small groan was heard, breaking through the silence and whispers of the wind. The groan was barely audible, but in such a quiet environment it was still enough to bring attention to the small body that lay on the floor, raising a tiny hand to its head. A shock of golden-blond hair was soon grasped by the small hand as the groan became slightly more audible, quickly becoming more identifiable as being the groan of a boy. A second passed as the boy rubbed at his head before blearily, two bright cerulean-blue eyes were revealed to the world, or rather, the small room.

"Ugh... what happened?" Naruto questioned as he rubbed at his throbbing head, hoping that the incessant hammering of drums would disappear if he did so. His head felt so fuzzy and warbled, leaving him terribly confused as he stared up at the wooden surface that was above him. He wasn't sure if it was the headache or the sleepiness that was preventing him from focusing on any singular thought, but even without that ability he was still pretty sure that the wooden ceiling he was looking at was terribly out of place. In fact, being in-doors at all seemed wrong in general...

Wasn't he just outside a moment ago?

Shutting his eyes tightly and shaking his head slightly, Naruto did his best to rid his mind of its haziness before he once more opened his eyes again. The small bit of mental preparation seemed to have helped a bit as he definitely remembered that he was supposed to be outside, but other than that he still couldn't remember why. The inability to remember was quickly getting on his nerves as he groaned in frustration. This place had to have at least _some_ answers as to either where he was or _why_ he was there. Letting his head slowly fall, Naruto shifted his gaze from the ceiling down to the area to his left.

Doing so revealed something he hadn't paid much attention to before; the fact that the room was incredibly dimly lit, with the only light visible streaming in through the small amount of window that he could see in the corner of his eye. Even so, the small amounts of light were still enough to reveal to him the liquid-covered floor a short distance away from himself. It was difficult to make out what it was but with the slight sheen it had to it from reflecting the light, it was made apparent that the subtance was a deep crimson. A small amount of fear creeped it's way into his psyche as he stared at what could only be a puddle of blood, the crimson liquid shocking the image of a shambling corpse into his foggy mind.

The monsters.

He definitely remembered those things now, and with the memories the fog that had been plaguing his mind was swept a little further away. It was those very memories that reminded him of the raven-haired teen that had protected him from the creatures. So he could only take a guess that the same raven-haired teen, whom he was now realizing he never got the name of, had likely brought him here, wherever _here_ was. That only left a few other questions on Naruto's mind.

Why didn't he remember being brought here, and where was the raven-haired teen?

Naruto's eyes lingered only a second longer on the shiny blood staining the floor as his mind conjured up an unpleasant image. Had he died? No... there wasn't a way that he could even picture that. After all, the teen seemed so strong and skilled, enough so that he'd even managed to kill two of those monsters. But if he hadn't died then he had to be nearby right? He had been going on about keeping him safe, which Naruto still didn't understand, so there was no way that he'd just leave him here in this dim room, that if the blood meant anything wasn't likely to be safe, right?

He didn't have long to ponder his situation before the answers—or at least some of them—were revealed to him in the next moment. He had just turned his head to check the opposite side of himself when he was startled by the figure lying next to him. He could only think of a single person who was likely to be anywhere near him at a time like this and judging by the fact that said person was collapsed on the floor next to him, things weren't looking so good.

Naruto couldn't exactly see the teen next to him, seeing as he had seemingly collapsed backwards and away from him, but he could still catch the glimmer of liquid on the teens hands. Without much more thought the young boy quickly climbed to his feet, ignoring the tingling in his limbs before he cautiously made his way over to the person that had saved him. It was only now that he was standing next to the downed-body that he was able to clearly identify it as being the raven-haired teen, and he really wasn't looking all too great.

From a quick first glance, Naruto could quickly make out just how pale the teens face had become, and not the healthy pale it had been before. Other than the coloration of the teen's skin, Naruto was able to see that there was some blood smeared on his chin, and dried vomit on the floor next to his face. Panic was quickly setting in on him as he gazed down at the deathly teen. He had no idea what was wrong, or what could have happened to him in the time he'd apparently been unconscious. He looked like he was sick, but Naruto didn't know much more about being sick other than appearances, which were practically instinctual.

He'd never really been sick himself before, and he was starting to regret it. Maybe if he'd ever actually been sick he'd know what he was supposed to do right now, but he didn't. A look of worry was now on the small child's face as he stared down at the downed form of his would-be-savior. It wasn't just the way the teen looked, it was also the blood that was pooled across the room and on the teen's hands.

Only now that he had turned his attention towards the crimson substance had he noticed the bloodied bandages that were scattered across the room. He could see that the lower halves of the teens legs were wound tightly in the same material, only the ones wrapped around his calfs and below seemed to be fresh; or at least not yet bloodied. His worry doubled as the realization struck. If the teen was hurt bad enough that he'd already lost so much blood, then there was no way he was going to be able to help him, he simply didn't know where to even begin.

Naruto gulped suddenly. He had to find some help for the older boy. If he couldn't then the one person who wasn't trying to kill him would probably die, and that'd mean he would once more be alone, surrounded by creatures that hated him and wanted nothing more than for him to die. Naruto didn't know what he'd do if his only chance for things to change was taken away from him. Perhaps he'd just let himself die then and be done with everything. For as long as he could clearly remember his life had been one big inferno of pain and loneliness, and he really didn't think he could continue bathing in the dreadful existence that was his life any longer.

Making his way over to the downed teen's form, Naruto leaned down to his side before, with not a small amount of might, he rolled the teen onto his side. While he didn't know much about helping someone get better from their wounds and sickness, he did know that choking on his own puke would likely kill him faster than anything else. It was after Naruto had made sure the still-breathing teen was going to remain that way that he began to look around the room once more, only this time for supplies he could possibly use. He knew he was going to have to leave this place to find help, and the only help he could think of right now were the others that his raven-haired leader had briefly mentioned.

His mind felt fuzzy when he tried to remember what the teen had said about them, like his own body didn't want to remember the words that were spoken. However, even without the ability to remember the details, Naruto definitely remembered that the teen had said he hadn't come alone, so that was as good a place to start as any. The only problem Naruto could think of was the fact that he didn't have a clue on where the others could be, or even how many others there were.

Returning his attention back towards his search, Naruto quickly concluded that other then himself and the teen, the blood covering the floor and bandages, and a large desk that had been rammed up against the door, there wasn't anything else of notice in the room that might possibly be of use at the moment.

Now that his attention was brought to the scene around him as a whole however, Naruto became a little bit worried. The area looked as if the two of them had just escaped a grueling battle that had forced the dark-haired teen to retreat into this room. The teen that was supposedly here to keep him safe was injured rather badly, as evidenced by all the bloodied bandages and life fluid coating the floor, and the only visible means of entering the room was barricaded with a large and rather heavy looking desk.

Naruto growled a little bit. Had he caused this somehow? There was no way he wasn't being a hindrance to the older teen if he had been unconscious. After all, the teen would have had to carry him around, and for how long? A light feeling of shame threatened to wash over himself as he became walking along that particular line of thoughts. He had possibly caused the condition his new friend was in, and probably because he had passed out. Once more a small amount of anger rose from the pit of his stomach at the cause of his confusion. If he at least could remember why he had been unconscious he'd feel a bit better, but he couldn't and it was only furthering his frustrations at his current situation.

As his eyes once more ran across the feverish-boy, Naruto let out a slow deep breath, letting the anger that had started to build loose and free from his system. It'd do him no good to let his emotions start taking over when someone's life was dependent on his next actions. It was also while his eyes were scanning the teen that his attention was brought to the various pouches that adorned the dark uniform he wore. The teen had pulled those pointed knives from one of them, and right now a weapon would definitely make him feel better about what he was planning to do. His eyes briefly drifted to the sword that was attached to the teen's back, much more visibly thanks to him being on his side, but they didn't linger long. As cool as a sword was, Naruto knew he didn't have the skill to use it.

Leaning down, Naruto unbuttoned the pouch that was closest to himself, opening the flap so he could see inside. He was rewarded with the sight of a bunch of small shuriken; the tiny throwing-stars he'd often seen shinobi training with. They wouldn't do him much good seeing as he himself held no training with the small projectiles, and as such would in no way be able to use them effectively. With a sigh Naruto moved onto the next pouch after re-buttoning the one he had opened.

The second pouch he opened revealed a zippered inner-lining that held various small pellets inside. The various pellets each held a different color and some a different size but none looked like they'd be of any use to himself or his soon-to-be journey, so repeating the motions he did with the previous one, Naruto re-buttoned the pouch and turned towards yet another one on the teens hip.

The third pouch was already unclasped and one loosely being closed by gravity. It was this pouch that revealed to him just where all the bloodied bandaged had come from. Inside there was some small scraps of bandages, and many other various first-aid necessities, ranging from various ointment tubes to specially-lined bags of pills. From the looks of things however, most of the pills had already been used up, and only one of the bags still contained many more. Though he stopped trying to figure out what they may have been for once he'd realized yet again nothing inside this pouch was going to help him.

Naruto's eyes briefly drifted upwards from the pouch he'd just opened to a strange looking pouch higher up on the teen's thigh. It was different than the ones he'd been searching through in the way that it was thin and square, and appeared to be sectioned off into two different sides. Without hesitation Naruto moved his hands up and over the pouches clasps, and with a small flick, tossed open the flaps on both sides of the strange pouch. Inside he was finally rewarded with the objects he sought. Each side of the pouch contained its own set of the knives that the raven-haired teen had used earlier to kill those creatures; a sight he was certainly happy to see.

Carefully Naruto placed a finger into the rings on both sets of blades and pulled them free of their confines. It seemed each side held three blades each. He wasn't sure if he was going to need so many, or even how he was going to carry them, but as he sat there examining the extremely refined razor's-edge of the weapons he fortified his resolve. If he was going to save to older boy on front of him, he was going to need to be able to defend himself, and to do that these blades were needed.

It didn't take more than a second for him to decide it would be best to simply take all the knives with him; his mindset being the classic, "better to have them and not need them rather than need them and not have them". So with that the young boy semi-awkwardly began removing the holster from the other boy's leg; gently undoing the straps that held the object firmly to his leg, before lifting the teen's leg up and pulling the pouch free. Repeating the process, only in reverse, Naruto attached the weapon holster to his own upper thigh, tightly around the orange pants he wore. With the holster now firmly attached he returned the various blades he'd removed back into their previous home, before he stood up fully.

As much as he knew he needed to, Naruto still wasn't sure if he was prepared to leave just yet. He'd always thought of himself as being a rational kid, able to think a situation through logically, and yet when he really tried to think about his current situation his mind simply felt blurry; as if he'd simply been awake too long and couldn't think clearly. Everything around him from the buildings to the trees felt normal, like he'd seen them everyday of his life, and yet at the same time they gave him an incredibly uneasy feeling. They felt normal, but wrong somehow. It was all hard for him to contemplate.

It wasn't just his surroundings that seemed strange either, it was also the raven-haired teen as well. He simply showed up out of the blue, claiming he needed to save him, but that made no sense... save him from what? Everything seemed exactly as it always was, but... there it was again, that light throbbing in his mind. Something was wrong with the overall picture. Everything was always like this right? If that was true then why did everything currently feel so wrong. A sense of inexplicable dread slowly settled down in the pit of his stomach as he realized his own inability to focus on the issue.

Well, if something was wrong with him, he was going to need help figuring it out. Turning to the sick teen, Naruto hardened his will. He knew he would get the answers he wanted if he could just find the rest of the shinobi's friends. With a deep exhale, Naruto finally made his move over to the barricaded door. While he didn't have a clue where to begin looking, the first step was going to have to be removing the desk from blocking the door.

He had just barely placed his hand upon the wooden surface, when strangely enough, a dull-tan colored piece of paper drew caught his eye. It was crumpled up and slightly torn on an edge of the ball. Slowly, Naruto reached down and picked up the wad of paper before, slowly, and with some care, he unraveled the tiny piece of paper. The moment he did so, he could very clearly identify it as being a note; a strange one at that.

Inside was a messily scrawled out note, consisting of only three words. The note itself put Naruto slightly on edge, and threatened to bring forth his fear, for on the note the three words sat written clearly in blood that had not yet dried, as evidenced by its deep crimson hue, rather than the sickly brown it would turn as it dried. With a gulp, Naruto began to quietly read the words to himself.

"Waiting at Hospital..."

It was eire. Was this left by his savior's friends? We're they hurt as well? If they were hurt, how were they going to help him and the raven head? Internally, Naruto knew something was wrong with the situation, but he would never acknowledge that. It was his only lead; the only place he had any reason to begin searching in. If he was going to do this, the hospital was as good a place to start as any. With another deep exhale, Naruto slowly moved over to the side of the desk, before with not a small amount of force, slowly slid the corner of the solid-wooden object away from the doorway.

It was hard, but the desk was quickly pushed out of the way, and the door was slowly opened. Peering outside the doorway, Naruto could barely make out a wall a few feet away, with darkness blotting out each of the other directions. Alright, so he'd found a hallway, and it was ridiculously dark. He could work with this. Slowly moving his was into the entrance of the hall, he noticed that while it was still extremely dark, he could still at least see a couple of feet around himself. Everything would be just fine if he was careful.

From here, a shaky step of a small leg would mark the beginning of a boy's dark journey though not just his own nightmares, but the nightmares of others as well.

* * *

 **Chapter end.**

 **Alright, so this might be a shorter chapter, but I'm hoping the quality is just as good! It also marks the first chapter where we switch to Naruto's perspective in everything. From here on out, the story will mostly be occurring from his perspective, and only switching periodically to shed light on some other happening of the story. I'm rather excited to begin writing this again as well, seeing as I just recently got inspiration from a creepy and abandoned building I visited lately.**

 **LONG LIVE SILENT HILL!**

 **Also, as an apology, I'd like to state that the extremely long wait for a chapter was spurred by the fact that, Fallout 4 recently came out (I'll probably write a story for it in the future) so that took up a great deal of my life as I explored it nonstop. After Fallout 4 came out it slowly drifted into the Holidays! It's December 27th as I write this, and I'm hoping you all had a great Christmas! Or if you don't celebrate Christmas, a great (whatever you did!).**

 **Sadly, I just realized that I have left the tower for my computer at my relatives house, so I won't have a computer to upload this with, for the next couple of weeks... Unless I can convince my brother to let me borrow his for a bit. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.**

 **-SaucyHandles**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello to everyone that bothers to read this! i just realized I haven't updated any of my stories in well over a year, and for that I'm truly sorry. At first the issue was simply the fact that I had become disenchanted with fan-fiction in general, seeing as at the time the quality of the fan-fictions in which I read had decreased. Couple that with the fact that a lot of the stories I enjoyed had become abandoned and I just lost interest in the idea of fan-fiction in general. After awhile however I went through a move to a new state and then got a job, making the concept of writing or reading anymore seem even less interesting, and as such I simply gave up all together.**

 **Oh, and my I-pad that had all of my uncompleted chapters and story plots broke, that didn't help.**

 **Anyways, this notice is in regards to me getting back into writing fan-fiction, now that I hopefully have a slightly better grasp of writing in of itself. However, what I need to know right now is whether or not anyone that follows me is still interested in the stories I have written. After all, there's little point in continuing a story if there's nobody left to read it. Regardless of whether or not there's a reader-base for my already published stories, I will be continuing to write again, whether it be updating a current story or starting a new one.**

 **Anyways, to those that read this, I need your opinions!**

 **Please tell me which, if any, of my stories you want to see updated first, so I know which story I should begin with!**

 **Now though, please be aware that any future updates will likely be fairly short, probably between 2k and 4k words at a time until I get back into the groove of things and I will likely only be updating about once every few weeks, meaning the content will be slow moving. After awhile however I plan to release regular updates to all of my stories. Even if I consider a story to be trash I still think writing and improving my capabilities would do me some good.**


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